


Where there is strife, there is Pride

by juurensha



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't copy to another site, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Maes Hughes Lives, Multi, Nina Tucker Lives, Redemption, Spies & Secret Agents, enemies to family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28488132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juurensha/pseuds/juurensha
Summary: The plan should have been to pose as Wrath’s son to better oversee the youngest of Father’s homunculi.However—Roy Mustang had risen through the ranks too quickly, and as a potential human sacrifice, he bore closer watching. And perfectly, Mustang’s closest friend was having trouble conceiving with his wife.So enter Selim, an orphan boy from King Bradley’s hometown who just happened to have gotten lost while coming to Central for the first time and pitifully bumping into Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes.Maes Hughes adopts Selim, and everything that changes from that.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Pride (Selim Bradley), Elicia Hughes & Gracia Hughes & Maes Hughes, Elicia Hughes & Pride (Selim Bradley), Father & Homunculi (Fullmetal Alchemist), Greed & Pride (Selim Bradley), Maes Hughes & Pride (Selim Bradley), Maes Hughes & Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Comments: 154
Kudos: 198





	1. Pride: The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Museflight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Museflight/gifts).



> So Museflight had a dream, then messaged me about this idea of what would happen if Pride had gotten adopted by Hughes instead, and after we screamed at each other a lot, somehow I had agreed to write a multichapter for this hahahahaha. Hope you guys enjoy it!

The plan should have been to pose as Wrath’s son to better oversee the youngest of Father’s homunculi.

It had been a perfect plan: he would be as always, close to the halls of power, keep a close eye on Wrath, seem completely innocent and non-threatening, and Wrath could cover up any non-childlike behavior he exhibited. There was of course Wrath’s human wife as well, but as if Pride couldn’t fool some human woman. 

However—Roy Mustang had risen through the ranks too quickly, charming and brilliant, surrounded by loyal subordinates, and although they had crushed other ambitious and determined stars before, this one was a potential sacrifice, and they were so close to Father’s plan coming to fruition.

So even though Pride had posed as the son of Amestris’ leaders for centuries, Father decided that Mustang bore further watching, and perfectly, Mustang’s closest friend was having trouble conceiving with his wife.

So enter Selim, an orphan boy from King Bradley’s hometown who just happened to have gotten lost while coming to Central for the first time and pitifully bumping into Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes.

It had all been laughably easy to be installed in the Hughes household.

Less laughably easy though was—

In his previous guises, the Fuherer involved always knew what he really was, so behind closed doors, they would leave him be.

There was no such respite with the Hughes household. 

Both Hughes and Gracia want to dress him in cutesy outfits, take what seems to be an endless number of photographs, require him to take a bath every day and comb his hair (he doesn’t need to, but sadly he  _ can’t tell them that _ ), chat about his day, make him eat his vegetables, take him to the zoo to stare at exotic creatures, read him bedtime stories, bake cookies for him—

(So not all of it was  _ bad  _ per say, if he had to be stuck with some humans.

They’re very doting, and he guesses maybe all this care makes them feel good, but  _ he  _ is  _ Pride _ , and this is all so  _ stifling. _

If it weren’t for Father’s orders, he’d rip them apart.)

The vegetables, bath times, and study times (all utterly useless; he doesn’t need to eat, his shadows can make him clean, and he doesn’t need to study when he has centuries of knowledge at his disposal) all continue painfully slowly, month by month, until even the smug knowledge that he has them all fooled grows a bit stale, and he can feel the shadows within him clamoring to be let out.

(But he won’t fail Father, and spending time here has at least let him know that General Grumman, besides just being Mustang’s mentor, is also the grandfather of Mustang’s right-hand lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, which has some interesting implications given how often the general urges Mustang to marry his granddaughter.

There’s also the fact that Mustang and Hughes have a system to check if their calls are being monitored, which is mostly what Hughes’ annoying gushing over him is for.

Mostly.

Hughes sometimes gushes unprompted too, it’s bizarre.)

And then one day, a car hurtles out of nowhere, careening straight towards him, and just when Pride is considering whether it’d be less obvious to use his shadows to flip the car away or to just take the hit and heal up to call it a miracle—

Arms envelop him, and he is carried bodily out of harm’s way.

“Selim! Are you alright?” Hughes frantically asks, his arms around Gracia who is hugging Pride tight.

Pride blinks at them, completely bewildered.

(Did they both just run out in the middle of the street to save him?

They’re normal humans—if they got hit by a car, they’d be paste.

Well—that’s interesting.

It seemed as if they loved Selim enough to actually risk their lives for him.

Pride had never had anyone like that before.

Intriguing—it was only right of course, since he is so superior to any of these humans here, but maybe he could keep playing at happy family a little longer.)

“Selim?” Gracia asks softly, patting his head.

He blinks and then makes a distressed face and forces some tears out for verisimilitude. “So scary!”

“Yes, yes, dearest—that was so scary for us as well,” Gracia murmurs, hugging Pride tight and burying her nose in his hair.

“And that driver is dead,” Hughes says menacingly, glaring over at the car while cocking his gun. “When I get my hands on him—”

“Report it to the police, dear,” Gracia says, touching his hand while still rubbing Pride’s head. “We should take Selim to the hospital just to make sure everything is alright, and that would be somewhat delayed by you getting arrested for murder.”

“As always my darling, you are right,” Hughes simpers, setting his gun away and taking Pride up from Gracia’s arms so that he can pick him up and carry him up high. “It’s okay, Selim—after we go to the doctor’s, we can go to the ice cream parlor!”

Pride genuinely perks up a bit at that (ice cream is one invention that Pride will grudgingly admit that humans did a good job with—not that  _ he  _ couldn’t have done better if he ever had the time away from Father’s plans. Perhaps afterwards). “I can eat whatever I want?” he verifies. “With two scoops?”

“Whatever you want with two scoops! Hell, why not three scoops!” Hughes laughs and nods.

Gracia clears her throat and looks at him.

“…how about you try two scoops first, and then if your tummy doesn’t hurt, then we’ll go up to three, okay?” Hughes amends quickly.

Obviously his stomach doesn’t hurt (he’s not  _ human  _ after all—or Gluttony after eating too many disgusting humans), and so he manages to get three whole scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream with two humans doting on him and hanging onto his every word.

(This isn’t too bad.)

He decides to fully immerse himself in his role after that, playing the cheerful child with loving parents who doesn’t have a care in the world, and it’s—surprisingly freeing?

It’s pleasant sometimes to have two people who really regard him as the center of their world.

(It is just a role though, and he does keep a sharp ear out for Hughes’ conversations with Mustang regardless while making his reports to Father and overseeing the rest of the homunculi.)

When Gracia gets pregnant (he did briefly consider setting up an accident, but he isn’t quite sure on the mechanics of miscarriages, and if Gracia really dies, both she and Hughes will no longer probably be able to worship him anymore), he is on high alert from any drop in his due attention, but instead, Hughes and Gracia immerse him in plans for being a big brother and welcoming in the new baby.

He’s not really looking forward to it even with all the attention he’s getting (humans are disgusting—they’re born as mewling little useless things that seem to just shit and wail), and at first he’s proven right. Elicia when she is born at first just cries and poops and keeps everyone up in the house all night long (if he needed sleep, he would definitely be tempted to murder her by now).

Still, he persists in his duties and role as a big brother, watching over her, handing her toys that she can drool then eventually chew on, hugging and kissing her (but only after wiping her clean because drool is disgusting) because at least Hughes and Gracia exclaim and compliment him about how well he is doing.

(Puny humans don’t even know how they’re talking to, heh.)

And then one day, Elicia looks up at him with shining eyes, smacks her lips together a few times, and squeals out, “Selim!”

Gracia gasps and covers her mouth with her hands, “Oh! Maes, did you hear that?”

“I certainly did!” Hughes exclaims, tearing up and taking off his glasses to dab at his eyes, “Our baby girl’s first word! Her brother’s name! Oh happy day~ This calls for a celebration! And I need to call Roy! Do you think she’ll say it again into the phone?”

“I’m sure she will as long as her brother holds her,” Gracia says with a smile.

As Hughes rushes out to drag the phone over to the nursery, Elicia holds up her chubby hands and again demands, “Selim!”

(It’s not his real name.

But still—first words are important, aren’t they?

And usually with humans it was either ‘mom’ or ‘dad’—the parents.

Even his own first words had been ‘Father.’

It meant the person this being most feared and admired, did it not?

This puny little drooling human was actually much more intuitive than Pride had thought then, to be able to realize his importance.)

He smiles down at Elicia, picking her up and cooing to her, “Aw Elicia, I love you so much! And you love me best too, right?”

“Selim!” Elicia yells happily, throwing her chubby little arms around his neck.

“Did you hear that Roy? I told you I wasn’t making things up!” Hughes happily chatters into the phone, bringing the receiver back to his face. “Of course Elicia is a genius—and Selim is the best big brother in the whole wide world! Oh, I am a blessed man, with the most wonderful wife, the sweetest son, and an angel of a daughter—Roy? Roy? Aw, he hung up on me…”

After that, Elicia is a bit more bearable. It helps of course that she never loses that proper worshipful look in her eyes, always toddling after him and clinging to his legs, wanting to play with him.

(It really should be annoying, a tiny human always clamoring after him.

But—

Somehow it’s not.

Maybe it’s because he’s basically the center of her world, and the more he acts like a good big brother, the more Hughes and Gracia both trust and adore him.

It’s extremely gratifying that’s true.

Elicia is so much better than all his other real siblings since she properly defers and respects his superiority the way all of them should.)

Of course, she does tend to get in the way of when he actually needs to oversee some of Father’s work or check in to see how Wrath is doing, but it’s easy enough to distract her. After the first time she burst in on him just seemingly staring at a wall during his “study time” (pah, human children are pathetic even needing  _ study time  _ to understand simple geometric shapes!), every time he needs some time alone to go probing through the corridors of power, he uses his powers to first set up a little shadow play with all the bunnies and fuzzy woodland creatures she seems to like so much (he doesn’t know why; the city is much better than any wilderness woodland area he’s had to tromp through), and then he can keep a tiny bit of his attention focused on telling her some insipid little story while the rest of him focuses on Father’s will.

It’s an interesting test of his powers—when she’s a baby, it’s obviously laughably easy to keep a story going with a minimum amount of his attention, but as she gets older, she starts to demand changes to the stories, like adding in princesses and pirates, and for him to do interesting voices for the characters, so that takes—a bit of an adjustment.

He figures out how much of himself he needs to leave in his human shell in order to stay more or less competent enough to handle her demands while still sending himself everywhere through Amestris to spy on what’s going on, oversee Sloth and his other homunculi brethren, and make reports to Father.

If sometimes he rushes to finish his tasks and hurry back because he can tell that Elicia is getting a little frustrated with some of his more rote answers and is starting to pout—

Well, this is also a mission from Father.

He was the one in the first place who told Pride to infiltrate himself  _ thoroughly _ into the Hughes family, and obviously, he has wildly succeeded at that.

He did have to swear Elicia into secrecy though after she extolled his shadow play skills to Hughes and Gracia in a babble of enthusiasm (thankfully, Hughes and Gracia had just thought Elicia was exaggerating things and had an amazing imagination, or else he may have had to do something drastic).

“Elicia, you need to know, my shadow play skills are top secret,” he says seriously to her after plopping her down in a chair.

Elicia nods at him, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Secret!” she echoes.

“That means they’re just between you and me,” he clarifies, pointing between the two of them. “So we only talk about the shadow plays with each other, got it?”

Elicia looks down then up again. “Plays longer?”

“…alright, longer plays,” Pride concedes (it’s fine, he can just add more ridiculous twists to the story, she won’t care).

“More voices!” she adds.

“More voices, fine,” Pride nods (not that hard either).

“Secret!” Elicia crows, a shining smile on her face.

“Yes, secret,” Pride nods proudly (good he got through to her).

“And cake!” Elicia adds, now on a roll.

Pride frowns. “No. Me giving you more cake would look suspicious.”

Elicia’s lower lip wobbles as she stares up at him with teary eyes, “No…cake…?”

If Elicia starts crying, Hughes and Gracia will inevitably come running in, which is the only reason Pride struggles a bit before saying, “….some cake. Like maybe an extra quarter of my slice, deal?”

Elicia stops looking on the verge of tears and beams sunnily at him. “Secret!”

Pride narrows his eyes at her. “…you didn’t just con me, did you?”

Elicia tilts her head. “Con?”

(Probably not, she’s like what, two?

Pride isn’t really clear on small humans—Elicia is really the first one he’s ever had to interact with for an extended period of time, but he’s pretty sure they’re not that developed yet.

Not that humans were ever all that developed.)

“Forget that word, Dad will probably think it’s weird if you know it. Mom might too,” Pride comments.

“Con!” Elicia yells because she’s just a little shit like that.

Still at the very least, even if she keeps yelling about cons, and even though Hughes and Gracia ask him exactly what stories he’s telling her (he makes up something about a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor even though it’s almost exactly the kind of stupid story Greed would love), she doesn’t mention the shadow plays any more to them.

Although, he has probably given her too high of an expectation on what a shadow play or really any kind of puppet theater should be because she’s always disappointed about the ones at school, chattering to him about how one day he should open up his own puppet theater and show the world!

(It’s a nice thought, but obviously it isn’t going to happen.

Father’s Promised Day is coming soon, and after that—

Well, he doesn’t actually know Father’s plan after that for him, but he doesn’t have to.

Children shouldn’t question their parents after all.

Although—maybe he should get Wrath to send the Hughes family off on a trip before that day starts.

It’s not that he’s gone soft, it’s just that depriving Mustang of his best friend and steadfast support and flow of information could weaken him properly to become a better sacrifice later on.

Still, he’d better keep the plan to himself for now—Father rarely likes any change in plans.

Something to think about closer to that day.)

So for the most part, things go smoothly and according to Father’s plan, and even if Mustang occasionally ruffles his hair or smooshes his face into cake, it just shows how well he can play his role.

(He will  _ greatly  _ enjoy turning Mustang into a sacrifice though.

Sometimes he idly daydreams about the reveal and Mustang’s shock and how satisfying all that will be.)

And then a suit of armor and a short brat with an automail arm and leg come barging in as potential sacrifices, and it all goes to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys catch the parallels to canon with Mrs. Bradley and Selim? And can you already tell that Pride is slowly, somewhat unbeknownst to him, growing to like his adoptive family? How do you think the Elric brothers will complicate things? How do you think Mustang will react to his nephew actually being a homunculus? Let alone Hughes.... The 10 chapter count by the way, is very _very_ tentative. Please leave comments/kudos!


	2. Hughes: Elric Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy recruits the Fullmetal alchemist, and Hughes has some thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now onto Hughes' POV! (I'll try to keep alternating them this entire time, while moving the story forward)

When Hughes first hears about how Roy had gone and recruited a  _ child  _ as a State Alchemist, he nearly punches him in the face.

(After all they went through—he wants to put someone else, some poor 11 year old boy through all that as well?

They’re lucky to be  _ alive _ —although given everything they did, maybe they’re not.

They got through, but at what cost, and with how much blood on their hands—

Whenever Roy becomes Führer, Hughes hopes the second person he puts on trial is him, because even if the Flame Alchemist’s deeds were more notorious and deadly, he doesn’t think he should be let off either.

He just hopes that when that day comes, Selim and Elicia are both old enough to stand on their own and support each other and Gracia through that trial.)

It’s only after Roy explains that the child and his brother had apparently done the great taboo of human transmutation and had managed to barely get out lucky with the loss of his arm and leg while binding his brother’s soul to a giant suit of armor that Hughes puts it together.

“…you want to give them a chance to figure out how to restore themselves back to normal.”

Roy nods, sliding him a look. “Why else would you think I recruited a literal child?”

“I don’t know,” Hughes shrugs in fake nonchalance. “I thought you were tired of being the youngest State Alchemist ever and wanted someone else to get picked on for once.”

Roy rolls his eyes, “You know how much I love being the wunderkind.”

“Uh-huh,” Hughes says, pouring some more beer into Roy’s glass. “Sure. Which general’s head did you make explode this week?”

Roy screws up his face in thought. “General Edison I think. He couldn’t believe I was making personal phone-calls on company time—specifically stopped by Grumman’s office to ream me out.”

“I’m sure Grumman loved that—and hope you got some good information this time. How’s your mother anyway?”

“Mom’s doing great, girls are doing good too—apparently business is good,” Roy shrugs. “Some information—General Raven is apparently a frequent customer. Not entirely surprising though, and not entirely sure what to do with that.”

“Could come in handy later,” Hughes says, leaning back. “He’s married, isn’t he?”

“You’re the information officer, you tell me.”

“Married, but your mom’s information isn’t common knowledge, so we can just keep it in mind,” Hughes confirms, searching his memory. “He doesn’t have any kids though—and I guess doesn’t want to adopt. He’s definitely missing out.”

Roy gets a hunted look in his eyes and starts drinking his beer faster, “Oh look at the time, I have to leave—”

“Not before you see these photos of my whole family at Selim’s school’s field day!” Hughes says, triumphantly drawing out a whole stack of new photos from his wallet (custom-made because regular wallets are too weak to hold his entire love for his perfect family). “Here we have Gracia with our adorable children, here’s Elicia cheering her brother on, here’s Selim running the relay race—”

“Did he actually win?” Roy interrupts.

“No, but he tried his best and that’s what matters!” Hughes gushes. “Look at his little legs pumping away! He’s adorable!”

“And kind of small for his age,” Roy points out, glancing at the photo. “Maybe you should stop letting him eat like two cakes at a time, the sugar seems to be stunting his growth. Not to mention cavities.”

Hughes snatches the photo back. “I’ll have you know that our dentist says he’s never seen such perfect teeth before with Selim! And you know—even Selim is only guessing about how old he actually is.”

(Selim says he barely remembers his parents, with how young he was when they passed away, and his birthday was just what the orphanage told him it was.

He also doesn’t like to talk too much about the orphanage he had been at before it had grown full and transferred him over to Central—and had so shoddily just dropped the poor boy off in the middle of the train station without even someone to pick him up, the bastards—and neither Hughes nor Gracia have pressed him on it.

Still—if Selim won’t even talk about it, Hughes can’t imagine that it was good.

So if his son wants an extra serving of ice cream sometimes, and it doesn’t seem to make his tummy hurt or give him any cavities, why not occasionally give him an extra serving?

Sadly, Elicia is not as lucky. Having tried to copy her brother, she ended up throwing up a ton of ice cream and spending the next day in bed eating liquids.

He had been beside himself with worry for his little angel, but Gracia reasonably pointed out that perhaps Selim’s stomach was just hardier since wherever he had been before obviously had been rougher.

Also he suspects that they never gave Selim enough food back then—the doctor assures both him and Gracia that Selim’s health is fine, but he can’t deny Roy’s comment that Selim  _ does  _ seem to be growing very slowly.

One of these days he’s going to go find that orphanage, get all the kids adopted to good homes, and then shut that place down.

He would have done it already, but it’s been strangely hard to locate—Selim’s adoption had been completely processed at the Central orphanage since technically he didn’t belong to his old orphanage anymore, so he doesn’t have any official paperwork to go off of. There’s always a chance Selim remembered the orphanage’s name wrong though, since despite his prodigious memory, he is still just a kid in the end.)

“Huh, lucky kid,” Roy muses, leaning back. “Doesn’t get cavities, can seemingly eat nearly anything without any problem, got adopted by you guys…”

“Aw Roy,” Hughes simpers. “Don’t worry, you also still have time! You can get married and either adopt or have kids whenever you want! Although if you’re old and decrepit by then, may be hard if you have or adopt a smaller kid, I think your knees will give out from running after them—”

“My hypothetical knees will be fine, and I’m pretty sure this is my cue to get you home to Gracia before you get sloppy drunk again,” Roy interrupts, standing up and also hauling him up.

Hughes goes ahead and finishes off his beer, setting the bottle down. “Well, we’ll see if you’re so cavalier once the Elric kid really shows up—they’re definitely going to make sure you’re in charge of him, and then you’ll get a taste of what your generals have been putting up with you all these years.”

Roy laughs and smirks. “I’m sure no one can top me.”

When Edward Elric really does come to Central to become a State Alchemist, Hughes is unfortunately on a seaside vacation (but not really unfortunately because how could spending time with his family ever be anything but a blessing?), but of course he hears about the visit all the same given that the boy apparently tried to  _ kill King Bradley  _ as part of the test.

“Seriously??? How many aneurysms did Central High Command have that day?” Hughes asks eagerly into the receiver. “Did he become the first ever State Alchemist to be arrested right after getting sworn in?”

He can practically see Roy pinch the bridge of his nose at the other end of this call. “I think probably all of Central High Command, and he’s not arrested. Just put under my charge.”

“I told you they were going to do that~” Hughes sing-songs smugly into the receiver. “Now you’ve got a 13 year old with an attitude problem and his brother who's a giant suit of armor as well!”

“One day, Selim and Elicia will be surly teenagers, and you can ask me for advice then,” Roy says loftily.

Hughes hisses. “Selim and Elicia will be wonderful young adults who know that Gracia and I will support them no matter what! And even if they grow a little surly, I wouldn’t ask you!”

He then hangs up while Roy is still chuckling.

(Ugh—just the thought of Selim and Elicia being grumpy teenagers who don’t want to talk to him brings tears to his eyes.

He kind of wishes they could stay cute little children forever—but of course the whole point of being a parent is for your kids to grow up and be able to become their own person in time.)

“Papa?” Selim asks curiously, tugging on his pant leg. “You were talking about a 13 year old State Alchemist?”

Hughes quickly smiles, picking up Selim and placing him on his knee. “Yep! He’s just 13, and he just passed the test to become a State Alchemist yesterday!”

“Wow!” Selim says with wide eyes. “He sounds really special! I can’t wait to meet him!”

“I’m sure that can be arranged!” Hughes beams at his son. “I think Roy is going to give him a pretty long leash, but he’ll have to report back to Central eventually, and then I’ll make sure you get to see him!”

Selim claps his hands together, “Wow, I can’t wait! And can I meet his brother too? I can’t believe he’s a walking suit of armor!”

(Selim has ears like an elephant’s sometimes—Hughes has no idea how he overhears half the stuff he knows.

He doesn’t really want to talk about human transmutation with Selim—hell, he doesn’t even know enough about alchemy to really say anything about it besides the fact that it’s forbidden for a reason and that it usually ends up killing the alchemist, but probably certain subjects can’t be avoided forever, no matter how much he wishes they could.)

“They…seem to have encountered some kind of accident when practicing alchemy,” Hughes says carefully, looking seriously into Selim’s eyes. “It’s the kind of thing that—perhaps isn’t uncommon in that field. But if you  _ are  _ interested in alchemy, Selim, I will definitely ask Roy and try to get you a good teacher—”

“Oh, I don’t need a teacher,” Selim says sunnily. “I know everything I need to know already, and there’s no need for more! I don’t believe accidents like that are that common, since otherwise we should have heard of so many! But either ways, I don’t need to be an alchemist.”

“Well, that’s fine too!” Hughes says in relief. “If you ever change your mind though Selim, just let us know! You know Papa will never refuse you anything.”

Selim blinks and nods. “I know.”

Hughes hugs his precocious little son to him (Selim’s favorite phrase is probably ‘I know’, it’s adorable!), squeezing him tight. “Aw, of course you do! And now we should go play on the beach!”

Selim frowns, pushing at him. “Too tight! And—do we have to?”

(Selim is not awfully fond of the beach—maybe it has something to do with the bright sunlight or the sand, he’s not sure, but like Gracia said, Selim could use some good old vitamin D, so whether he likes it or not, he’s going to have sunscreen lathered over him, and then he’s going to go stand in the sun for at least an hour or so.)

“We promised Elicia we’d teach her how to make sandcastles, remember?” Hughes prompts.

Selim crosses his arms and lets out a cute little huff. “More like keep her from eating sand,” he mutters before getting off and walking glumly towards the door. “Okay, I guess.”

“Go see your mom for more sunscreen!” Hughes urges before grabbing a sun umbrella and following him out.

With the sun umbrella in hand and sunscreen newly if reluctantly applied, Selim seems a bit happier as he twirls the sun umbrella around while imperiously instructing Elicia on his plans for a grand sand castle city. Elicia nods seriously and scurries to scoop up sand into her bucket, and their two children set about creating a lumpy looking sand city, with Selim occasionally slapping Elicia’s hand down from when she’s about to try and put her sandy fingers in her mouth.

Hughes of course hurries to take photos of their masterpiece as Gracia looks up from the murder mystery she’s reading while lounging on the towel and smiles.

“My, are they trying to create a canal system?” she asks, sitting up to look more closely.

“Yep! And they’re doing a great job of it!” Hughes beams as Selim helps Elicia drag over a bucket full of sea water to carefully pour into their city.

“It really is,” Gracia says, watching as the water fills the city. “Maybe Selim should be an architect or a city planner someday, he clearly has a gift for it.”

“That would be delightful!” Hughes says, already making plans for art classes and tours through the city planning offices (he doesn’t actually know what classes an architect needs to take, but he’s sure he can find out!). “We’ll need to remember to tell the school to maybe do some more field trips to famous historical buildings so that he can get exposed to more of that—”

“And I’ll also buy some books with pretty pictures of beautiful buildings and see if he likes any of them,” Gracia beams at him. “Some simple ones so Elicia can also follow along if she’s interested.”

Hughes snuggles next to his wife on the towel, kisses the side of her head, and sighs happily as their hands intertwine. “Your ideas as ever, are brilliant, Gracia.”

(He doesn’t deserve her, he knows.

He doesn’t deserve her or their wonderful children what with all the families and lives he broke apart and ended, but—

Somehow they’re all here, and for now, he’ll enjoy them.)

Gracia smiles softly and strokes his cheek with her hand. “I know.”

Selim scrunches up his nose as he walks hand-in-hand with Elicia over towards them. “If you guys are done being mushy, the SelimAndElicia City is complete!”

“City! Done!” Elicia says happily, waving her pudgy little hands around.

“And it’s a masterpiece!” Hughes gushes, immediately following his kids over to take a closer look, Gracia close on his heels. “Just look at all these canals and riverways! Where did you come up with this?”

“Oh, just something I read,” Selim says off-handedly.

(Selim is  _ so smart— _ his teachers always say that he always knows all the answers in class, his homework is always perfectly complete without a single smudge mark from an eraser, he is reading far beyond his grade level, and Hughes is mildly worried but also proud that one day soon, Selim will probably know even more than either he or Gracia do.

Still, that’s good—maybe he’ll be wiser than his old dad too.

Make better decisions and all that.)

“It’s amazing! A veritable masterpiece!” Hughes praises the two of them, “It should be enshrined forever on this beach as a testament to both of your geniuses!”

Selim looks around and points out, “The tide will come in and wipe it all away sooner or later.”

“All the more reason to take a picture then!” Hughes says, backing away and holding up his camera. “Now Selim and Elysia—act like you’re on a magazine cover!”

Both his children put on big, huge smiles as they gesture towards the sand city, and this of course is the photo that Hughes blows up and displays during the much-anticipated exhibition match between the Flame Alchemist vs. the Fullmetal Alchemist.

Sadly, everyone there is a complete  _ heathen  _ who boos and yells at him to get on with the match—yes, even Roy that absolute traitor.

(He might still have been ticked off about how Hughes had negotiated the use of the parade grounds, which had cleared the final hurdle for this match to actually happen, but come on, Hughes knows that A. Roy would never actually harm this teenage alchemist and B. Roy is a wily veteran who isn’t about to get beaten by a teenager, no matter how much of a prodigy he is.

Also, Selim had been extremely enthusiastic about the idea so of course he had to make it happen.

However, Selim was back here in the MC booth with him instead of in the front of the stands like he had wanted because even if Hughes doesn’t know what the kid alchemist is capable of, he has no such delusions about how explosive and destructive Roy’s alchemy usually is.)

“Fine, none of you appreciate having an actual picture of angels in your midst,” he sniffs before roaring out and pointing, “Annnnnnnnd in the red corner! The Flame Alchemist, Colonel Roy Mustang! Annnnnnnnnnd in the blue corner! The Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric!”

There’s a variety of boos and jeers that accompany that, but Roy doesn’t waste any time covering the field in roaring flames while lecturing at the kid with strategic idioms (and Roy says he doesn’t want kids, Hughes is calling  _ bullshit  _ here). Selim is leaning practically out of the MC booth, his eyes intent among the flames, and Hughes has just grabbed him back when the kid actually gets the drop on Roy and destroys his glove. Of course, Hughes could have told the kid that Roy isn’t dumb enough just to carry  _ one  _ of those around with him (he would never have survived Ishval otherwise—or even if he was that dumb, Hughes or Riza would have definitely made sure he had extras), and then Roy finishes off the whole thing with one big flashy explosion.

“Hm,” Selim says, eyes still intent on the grounds. “The chibi alchemist is still kind of reckless.”

“Well he’s just a teenager after all,” Hughes says, quickly gathering up the precious photo and grabbing Selim’s hand, “Come on, we need to go now.”

“What? But you haven’t even announced the winners yet!” Selim protests, following him along.

“Yes, but if we don’t leave now, who do you think the Führer is going to make clean everything? It’ll definitely be all the soldiers there. A soldier should know when to retreat,” Hughes says decisively.

Selim looks at him and then tilts his head with a wide smile, “I’ll remember that!” he says happily, his little legs pumping as he follows Hughes in his scramble back to his office.

(He hopes that Selim doesn’t have to.

Like if Selim really wants to follow in his footsteps and become a soldier—Hughes won’t bar anyone from their dream, least of all their own son, so he’ll support him and guide him the best he can through the ranks if that’s what he really wants.

However, he hopes that with all the other opportunities he and Gracia make available to both Selim and Elicia, neither of his children decide to join the military.

Even if— _ when  _ Roy takes over, it’s just still—a soldier’s job is to serve and to guard and protect the people of a country, but even with a good person in charge, that role could get twisted, and—

He’d prefer if none of his children ever have to suffer the disillusionment he did.)

He forces himself to smile and ruffles Selim’s hair. “Good! Your old man is full of good advice, you know!”

“Is that why Uncle Roy is always calling you?” Selim asks with wide eyes.

“Yep! He’d never get anywhere without me,” Hughes brags, going ahead and pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“He has Aunt Riza though,” Selim points out, climbing onto a chair and sitting there, with his legs swinging underneath him.

“Yeah—if you took both of us away, that’d be pretty bad,” Hughes admits, sipping his coffee. “Still, we aren’t going anywhere, don’t you worry, kiddo!”

“I’m not worrying,” Selim says with a sunny smile, before glancing out the window again. “Can I meet the chibi alchemist Papa, pleeeeeease?”

“You really like the Fullmetal Alchemist, huh?” Hughes chuckles, setting his cup down. “I’ll see what I can do—and I’ll have to tell Uncle Roy that he isn’t your favorite alchemist anymore.”

“They’re all my favorites!” Selim says cheerfully.

Hughes does manage to wrangle a meeting after the clean-up is done, distracting Roy from haranguing him by asking where his teenage charge is.

“Sulking with his brother about his loss, probably,” Roy shrugs as Riza hands him a clean handkerchief. “I’m the last person he wants to see, so I won’t be going with you if you want to meet him—Lieutenant, maybe you can go?”

Riza nods and says quietly, “That would probably be wise. Lieutenant Colonel if you would follow me—and are you bringing Selim along as well?”

“Yes, he’s a big fan!” Hughes grins as Selim looks up pleadingly.

“Well, I’m sure he’ll like that,” Riza chuckles softly as she leads them down the hallways until loud complaints can be heard drifting down the hall.

“I nearly had him, Al! Right there! If he just didn’t have an extra glove—!  _ Eaurgggghh!” _

“It’s okay, big brother! Now you know, and you’ll definitely get him next time! If there is a next time…”

“I’LL GO YELL AT KING BRADLEY MYSELF IF I HAVE TO GET A REMATCH WITH THAT SMUG—”

Riza interrupts the tirade with a light cough as the blonde teenager whirls around. “Edward Elric, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes and his son, Selim Hughes. Lieutenant Colonel and Selim, Edward Elric.”

Selim regards the teenage alchemist solemnly then opens his mouth and cheerfully says, “Wow, you looked much taller from the stands!”

A vein almost immediately pops out on Edward’s head, “WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SHORT MINISCULE PIPSQUEAK WHO IS A SPECK, YOU LITTLE SNOT-NOSED BRAT! YOU’RE NOT EVEN THAT TALL—”

“But I’m only nine, but you’re 15, so shouldn’t you be a lot taller?” Selim cuts in before Hughes can open his mouth ( _ who was this punk calling a brat _ ), blinding his eyes innocently and turning to the hulking suit of armor nearby as Edward froths in rage. “Or wait—are  _ you  _ actually the Fullmetal Alchemist?”

“Oh no, I’m Al—Alphonse Elric, Ed’s younger brother,” the suit of armor explains in a high pitched voice.

“Wow, you’re so cool!” Selim says admiringly, knocking against Al’s suit of armor, and a hollow echo sounds out, along with an odd ‘ _ mew _ ’ sound. “Was that…a cat?”

“Oh no—Al,  _ again _ ?” Ed demands, his head whipping around as he glares at his younger brother.

Al holds up his hands, the lights in his eyeholes oddly pleading. “It’s—it’s just for a little while, big brother! They looked so sad in the rain…”

“You can’t keep collecting cats, Al! We never know what to feed them, we’re always on the move, they make your armor smell weird, and I’m always worried they’re going to mess something up—”

“They don’t make me smell weird! You’re the one that smells weird!”

“ _ What?  _ You take that back! You don’t even have a nose right now!”

(Good god, they really were just kids.

And—Roy had mentioned that the person they had tried to bring back was their mother, right?

Where was their dad in all this?

He didn’t seem to be around at all, and Roy at least had never mentioned him—

Hughes really has some choice words for this guy if he ever meets him.)

“Well—I don’t know about a lot of cats, but I’m sure Selim and my daughter Elicia would love one!” Hughes cuts into the Elric brother fight.

Al turns around, the lights in his eyes shining as his massive hands clasp together. “Would you really?” he breathes.

“Yeah!” Hughes glances over at Selim, “You’d like a cat, wouldn’t you, Selim?”

Selim blinks then smiles. “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

It turns out that oddly enough the calico kitten utterly despises Selim, hissing and flailing as soon as he tries to hold him, but besides that complete craziness, “Quilt” as he is dubbed starts purring and rolling around on his back, showing his stomach and absolutely  _ adores _ Elicia, running to her as soon as she toddles through the door.

Selim just shrugs at this. “Makes sense. If I were Quilt, I’d choose Elicia too.”

Hughes tears up at that, sniffling and loudly declaring, “We’ll get you a puppy who adores you too, Selim! Quilt obviously has some trauma after living on the streets—how else could he not love you?”

Selim just looks at him and laughs. “It’s okay, Papa,” he says with a wide grin. “I won’t have time soon for a pet anyway.”

It’s true enough, what with Selim just a few years away from junior high, and he supposes that if Selim doesn’t want a puppy, then they shouldn’t get him a puppy.

(He still tries taking him to the pet store though, just to see if anything catches his eye.

He had thought maybe like a gerbil or a fluffy rabbit maybe, but instead Selim pauses on a shadowy looking fish, and for some reason decides to buy that.

Selim must really love it though because that fish has its tank all to itself and survives for  _ years _ , despite Hughes and Gracia expecting to have to buy a replacement within a month.)

The Elric brothers also become regular guests at their house whenever they have to come to Central—at first it was just to see Quilt and offload other kittens (maybe the armor is laced with catnip or something—all of Hughes’ subordinates run away now whenever they see him hauling a box in because they are absolutely  _ sure  _ it’s going to be more kittens he’s going to guilt them into taking care of), but  _ obviously  _ these boys aren’t eating well on the road so Hughes has to make sure they eat a healthy homecooked meal (it’s besides the fact that Al can’t eat—Ed seems to eat enough for both of them), and how could Gracia look at these practically orphaned boys and not offer them a warm room to stay in, and Elicia is shrieking with delight that there are new people staying with them, and Selim is of course ecstatic to get the Full Metal Alchemist under their own roof.

It’s a bit of a change, taking care of two rowdy teenage boys in addition to his two little angels, but it’s still quite rewarding—both he and Gracia exchange fond smiles when they catch Ed sprawled over their couch, snoring with a book against his face while Al plays with Quilt.

He even does his best to help the Elric brothers on their quest for the Philosopher’s Stone, letting them know about any leads he finds.

Which is how the two of them learn about Shou Tucker, much to his regret. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Hughes? I see him as a man who puts on a very cheery front, but his inner thoughts go sometimes to dark places.   
> Did you catch the parallels of how he thinks of himself as a parent vs. how Father is? What city was the sand castle city based on, I was thinking Xerxes, but it's up to you guys in the end! How did you guys like the inclusion of the Flame Alchemist vs. Fullmetal alchemist extra? Did you like (or scream) at how Pride is gathering information as a child? How did you like the Hughes basically adopting the Elric brothers (You know they would have in canon if they had met them sooner) And what do you think will happen with Nina now? Please leave comments/kudos!


	3. Pride: The Scarred Killer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nina, Greed, and Scar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We start hitting even more of the AU timeline now. Hope you enjoy it though!

Pride had just been sweeping an idle eye over Shou Tucker’s house, checking to see if the Elric brothers had decided to make their way over there again (they had seemed rather shaken up about Tucker’s little experiment—Pride isn’t really sure  _ why _ , that was one of the shoddiest chimeras he had ever seen, and it wasn’t like they could learn anything from it, but Father told him to keep an eye on precious human sacrifices, so he did), when he suddenly senses the flicker of some very familiar energy.

The energy of the Ultimate Shield.

_ Greed. _

(Pride doesn’t really get along with any of his siblings—none of them respect him as the eldest and wisest and most powerful as they should—but Greed he especially despises.

Children should obey their parents, not run off because their parent’s plan gets in the way of their own worldly, selfish,  _ stupid  _ desires.

Pride had wanted to hunt him down as soon as he had run off, but Father had said that there was no rush since the plan didn’t actually require Greed’s assistance anyway, and that Greed would inevitably turn up again.

As always, Father is right.)

He immediately sends his shadow hurtling after that sign (it’s a good thing he had managed to concoct some idiotic story about how he had really wanted to visit East City in order to get Hughes to bring him along for this business trip), and is surprised to find that it’s coming from inside Shou Tucker’s house.

(Why is Greed here?

There should be of nothing that interests him in that pathetic waste of an alchemist’s house—no money, no gems, no women, just a strange malformed little chimera—)

Pride pauses as he notices a woman with strange tattoos and a shorter man with a sword walking with his sibling through the halls of the house. Both humans have rather odd auras.

(Human chimeras—ones put together much more skillfully than Tucker’s disaster.

A….snake and a dog, if he is reading them correctly.

So—has Greed taken to collecting chimeras now?

He must have gotten bored of money and women—it was very like Greed.

Then—he was here for Tucker’s sad excuse of a chimera?

He must have expanded his collection quite far to want even  _ that _ .)

The shorter man stops, sniffing the air.

“What is it, Dolcetto?” Greed asks affably, looking around the house with his hands on his hips.

“…someone else is here. An Ishvalan, I think. And there’s—I don’t know, something else feels strange…”

“Well, we’d better get that chimera and get out after that, then,” Greed says, picking up the pace. “Dolcetto, you grab her and go—Martel and I deal with the Ishvalan.”

(An Ishvalan?

In the house of a state alchemist, albeit, one who was soon to lose his title?

….could it be that scarred serial killer who Hughes had been worrying over as of late?

Perhaps he can hold back on grabbing Greed for a bit just to check—Father hadn’t been pleased about someone running around outside of his control who could end up targeting precious sacrifices.)

“Huh? Why me?” Dolcetto demands running after Greed and presumably the woman who was named Martel.

“Because she’s part dog, right? And you’re part dog, so maybe that’ll calm her down?” Greed reasons.

Martel opens her mouth, “Pretty sure it doesn’t work like that boss—”

“Aw man!” Greed says loudly as they walk into a room where what was probably Shou Tucker lies in a pile of exploded blood and gore, and a dark-skinned, white-haired man with an X-shaped scar on his forehead jerks his outstretched hand away from the malformed chimera. “I wanted to ask this guy some questions before ripping him apart! Sad…well, mystery man, back away from my newest chimera, and you’ll be fine.”

The man stands up slowly, the light glinting off of his dark sunglasses as he flexes his hand. “ _ Your  _ chimera? You commissioned this?”

“No, but since I heard someone made one, I may as well collect her,” Greed shrugs, looking over the scarred man’s shoulder at the chimera. “….huh. Not as well put together as I was expecting…may need to find another alchemist to fix this or something…still, let’s take her and go, we’ll figure it out later.”

“…I don’t know who you are, but I don’t think I should let you go,” the man says slowly, reaching out, “I will end this creature’s misery, and then I will see about you—”

Martel slips past him as fast and fluidly as the snake that she must have been combined with, and Dolcetto unsheathes his sword as Greed throws back his back and laughs.

“Oh, you can try,” he says dismissively before his hand is covered with the Ultimate Shield, and he sends the scarred man flying with a punch as Dolcetto slashes out, and all three of them take off running.

“Boss—should we disable that guy first?” Dolcetto shouts as something explodes behind them.

“Oh, you have more things to worry about than that, Greed,” Pride says before Greed can reply, letting his eyes open wide in the shadows around them.

Everyone freezes, including the scarred man who seems to have just disintegrated the door with his hand (…interesting, maybe he should also grab him for Father to examine).

Greed purses his mouth and says while gesturing for his chimera underlings to go. “….Pride the Arrogant. What an unpleasant surprise. Can we reschedule the family reunion for, oh, maybe next century or so? Two hundred years without seeing your creepy eyes has not been nearly long enough—oh god, Envy isn’t here too, are they? That’d be a real mood-killer when I’m trying to recruit someone here…”

“Just me, Greed. But never fear, I’ll give you the whole family reunion you’ve been longing for,” Pride says, reaching his shadows out. “Father has been kept waiting long enough.”

Greed groans as the Ultimate Shield spreads across his entire form, “Still answering to daddy dearest, Pride? Will you ever grow up? Oh right—you  _ can’t. _ ”

Pride grits his teeth (how  _ dare Greed talk to him like that _ ), reaching out to grab him right when he hears a door open, and Hughes’ voice float through, “Now I’ll be right here this entire time, you boys got that? I’m still not sure if it’s the right thing to let you see them again, but anything you can do for that poor girl— _ holy shit, what the fuck— _ Ed and Al, you stay back, there’s blood here—I’m going to go investigate—”

(Oh shit.

He can’t rampage around and capture Greed with Hughes here—he’s  _ definitely  _ going to notice homunculi running about, and even if he doesn’t know what they are, that’s going to bring up a lot more questions than Hughes and more importantly, Mustang should have at this stage.

So—as much as it kills him to do so, he should probably just let Greed run off with his newly acquired chimera to add to his collection.

He can just make a sweep later to figure out where he has been hiding this whole time.

Then—there’s this serial killer with some very kind of strange alchemy now in the path of one of Father’s precious human sacrifices.

Grabbing him would result in the same amount of mess that grabbing Greed would result in, but he has some doubts about Hughes and the Elric brothers facing off against someone who has managed to successfully kill off so many state alchemists.

…he’s going to have to call in reinforcements and stand by.)

Greed has already taken advantage of his split in attention to hightail off with his merry little band of chimeras, leaving only the scarred man staring at him as he withdraws enough of himself back into his child’s body to pad over to the telephone and dial the number for Mustang’s office.

“Maes, I don’t need to hear about what genius thing Selim did this time, I’m actually busy trying to track down a killer—”

“Uncle Roy! Papa has been gone for awhile…he and the Fullmetal chibi went to see Nina’s house! Papa didn’t want me to go, but I followed a little and—and I think I saw a weird scarred man following after them? Uncle Roy, can you go check?”

He hears Mustang take a sharp breath in at the other end of the receiver, “….crap. Yes, don’t worry Selim, we’ll be right over there to check.”

“Thanks Uncle Roy!” he chirps before hanging up and flowing straight back to the Tucker household where things do not seem to be going very well.

The scarred man does have a few knives stuck in him, but they don’t seem to phase him much, and Al’s armor is already halfway dissolved, while Ed’s automail arm is hanging on by a shred.

Hughes is standing in front of both boys, knives in his hands, one arm dangling somewhat uselessly (broken most likely), blood seeping down from the top of his head where it seems he knocked into something (concussion definitely), and glaring at the scarred man whose sunglasses have been knocked off, revealing the distinctive Ishvalan red eyes.

“Stop going after these kids,” Hughes urges, baring his knives, “They had nothing to do with the war—while me, I’m a veteran. I have the blood of your people on my hands.”

The scarred man bares his teeth as he snarls and lunges forward, “You’re first _ —” _

(Hughes will die facing off against this Ishvalan man with strange alchemy in his hand.

That’s not acceptable.

Because—because Hughes dying will definitely lead to Mustang going on a rampage, and that will certainly disrupt Father’s plan and the schedule for the Promised Day, so—

So Pride will have to take matters into his own hands for now.

Subtly though—just until Mustang gets here.)

Pride simply lets one of his shadows tug at the scarred man’s ankle, causing him to stumble enough so Hughes can slash at him with one of his knives.

The scarred man’s eyes narrow as he looks down at the shadows. “…and now even demons fight for your Amestris. That is not surprising.”

Hughes frowns, shifting so he can block Ed and Al from view. “Demons? What demons?”

“The shadows here have eyes—”

_ Bang. _

The door explodes open, with that weakling Armstrong already having stripped his shirt off, as Mustang fires off a warning shot and walks in, surrounded by his team.

“You really have been on a royal tear, Scar,” Mustang says, glancing over at Hughes before focusing on the scarred man again. “Still, it’s good that we got a tip. I’m taking you into custody for being the culprit behind a string of State Alchemist killings.”

Scar sneers. “Alchemists are those who change things from their natural form into something grotesque. That is to say, they profane God, the creator of all things. As an agent of God, I am he who hands down his judgement. If you interfere, I will eliminate you as well.”

As Mustang strides forward to meet his challenge, only to be kicked away by Hawkeye who reminds him that he’s useless on rainy days, and Armstrong instead starts to take on the scarred man, Pride simply makes sure that someone seems to be looking over Hughes—and Ed and Al.

(Good, all potential human sacrifices were pretty much safe and secure.

If he’s lucky, maybe Mustang will even successfully apprehend this Scar, and then Pride can later slip into his cell and take him to Father to be examined.

Now—for Greed.)

Sweeping across the city, he catches a faint aura heading away at—the train station. Checking the train schedule, it seems the only train at this time was heading to…Central.

But Greed wouldn’t go to Central where Father is—he’d probably swap trains or get off at a stop before then.

Cross-referencing other parts of the train schedule, he figures out that there’s a transfer along this route, headed towards Dublith.

(Greed could still transfer to other cities, but that was still a start.

He should probably only inform Father after actually ascertaining Greed’s actual whereabouts though—Father would not be pleased to hear how he had actually let Greed slip through his grasp.

He’ll just let Wrath know to investigate over there—sadly, his powers didn’t extend that far, and he doubted that Hughes would be able to take leave or get sent on a business trip there anytime soon.)

Satisfied with his findings, he peeks back into the Tucker house. The street outside had been completely ruined, with Scar nowhere to be seen, and Mustang has propped Hughes up to walk him over to a stretcher, murmuring to him in a low voice as Hughes weakly struggles to stand up on his own and gestures over to where the Elric brothers have already been set on stretchers.

(Hm.

Sadly, Mustang’s efficiency isn’t as high as he had hoped for—but then again, it is sadly, a rainy day, which means that muscle-bound coward Armstrong probably bore the brunt of the fight.

Pity—he’ll definitely have to let Father know about him.

They can’t have random human sacrifices getting killed by a madman before the Promised Day after all.

And besides, Lust and Gluttony need  _ something _ to do besides plot how to best take his place and eat random junk in the sewers.)

“How did you even know to come check on us?” Hughes wheezes as a medic hurries over to shine a light in his eyes and examine his arm (given the way he’s breathing, Pride is putting even odds on something being wrong with his ribs as well).

“Your son followed after you, apparently caught sight of ‘a weird scarred man’, got scared, and decided to run to a telephone on his short legs to call me,” Mustang replies, pushing him down when he tries to shoot up.

“Selim?! What the hell was Selim—where is he?  _ Is he alright? _ ” Hughes immediately asks, struggling against the medic’s hold.

“Selim appears to be back at the hotel,” Hawkeye answers quietly, appearing at Mustang’s side. “I called the staff to check in on him—they said he was fine, just a bit worried I suppose, since he was just staring at a wall.”

Hughes sinks back down into the stretcher, nearly boneless as the medic continues to examine him. “Oh—good. Could you—could you call him and make sure he knows me and the Elric brothers are alright?”

“Done, but that kid must be so much more athletic than I thought to get from around here back to the hotel that fast,” Mustang frowns looking around.

Hughes scowls at him. “Selim is a very energetic and healthy boy!”

“An energetic and healthy boy who somehow managed to catch sight of Scar before you guys ever did, despite you saying that he went into the house first…strange,” Mustang notes.

(Crap, he always forgets how smart Mustang is.

Still—even if the time doesn’t exactly match up, there’s no way they’d suspect cute little Selim Hughes, would they?)

“I’ll ask him when I get back,” Hughes shrugs, then winces in pain. “…after I get treated—is my arm broken? It feels broken.”

“It’s definitely broken,” Mustang replies dismissively, flicking a glance over to the Elric brothers. “Still—you’re better off than the Elrics. Ed’s arm looks completely busted—he’s going to have to see his automail tech for that.”

Hughes brightens up a bit. “Ohhh~~ Is he going to go home and see Winry? I haven’t met her yet, but she sounds like a great girl! Maybe some romance will finally blossom there~~”

“You need to stop talking like a gossipy old aunt, it’s super creepy,” Mustang informs him, and then they’re off bickering again, and Pride thinks he can stop monitoring them for now.

Pride has managed to contact Father and coordinate with Lust and Gluttony (mostly Lust—although she’s getting a little too comfortable as a commander in his opinion) to track down Scar and eliminate him as soon as possible (probably the sewers, he thinks—he’ll do a sweep himself later, but he won’t be able to stay in this city that long, so Lust and Gluttony will have to perform most of the search themselves down in the stink, so sad) and arranged himself so it looks as though he’s half-heartedly reading a book, letting his legs kick beneath his chair by the time Hughes stumbles in, half supported up by Mustang.

“Papa!” he calls out, adding a thread of worry to his voice and widening his eyes as he rushes over. “Papa, you’re hurt!”

“I’m alright Selim—are you okay?” Hughes says, heavily sitting down on a bed while reaching out to examine Pride. “Uncle Roy says you followed me out—that’s really dangerous, son!”

“But I wanted to see that Nina and Alexander all of you were talking about!” Pride lies in protest, adding a wobble to his lip for good measure. “Are they okay?”

“They’re—well—we’re looking for them,” Hughes says helplessly, exchanging a look with Mustang.

Mustang sits backwards in a chair and props his hands on the back of the chair, looking at Selim. “So—where exactly did you see the scarred man, Selim? You said he was following after them?”

“I’m not sure,” Pride shakes his head sadly. “It’s a bit of a blur—he was so scary looking—maybe I saw him in the window? I just—I just felt really scared, so I ran to call you—”

“You ran all the way back to the hotel?” Mustang’s eyes are narrowed. “You must have moved pretty fast—”

“Roy, can I ask you why you’re asking Selim all these questions?” Hughes interjects, placing a hand on Pride’s shoulder. “He saw Scar somewhere—panicked because yeah, that guy does look scary, and called you and saved me, isn’t that enough?”

“It would give me a better picture of the scene and where Scar came from and where he’s hiding now if Selim could remember exactly where he saw him,” Mustang replies steadily.

Pride lets his eyes tear up (take that Mustang). “I—I—I really don’t know! I just—I just saw him and—I was so  _ scared _ —”

Hughes immediately pulls Pride into a hug and glares at Mustang. “Good job Roy, real good job there, terrifying little children into submission, putting those interrogation skills into great use there. What innocent would you like to interrogate next? Al whose missing half of his armor? Ed who is down to one working arm?”

Roy looks somewhat chagrined, holding up his hands. “Sorry, sorry—hey, sorry Selim, it’s just—your dad was in a pretty bad situation there, and it’s great—beyond great that you managed to think quickly enough to call me, but that bad man is still out there. Don’t you want to help us catch him?”

Pride sniffles, scrubbing at his face with the back of his hand. “Y-yes…if—if I remember anything, I’ll definitely tell you, Uncle Roy!”

(Not that he will have to.

No matter what strange alchemy or grudge this Scar has, Lust and Gluttony will make short work of him.)

Soon after, the Elric brothers arrive since they are also Scar’s potential targets, and even though Ed heavily protests it, Mustang assigns guards all around their hotel rooms before heading off himself.

“Stupid Mustang—we can totally take care of ourselves!” Ed protests, flopping against the bed.

“You  _ are  _ down to one arm, big brother…” Al says doubtfully.

“But I at least figured out what he was doing!” Ed retorts. “He’s basically just using alchemy himself—stopping before the actual creation process. What a hypocrite…”

“He has his reasons, I’m sure,” Hughes says tiredly, cleaning his glasses. “The war was—bad.”

(Hughes has never talked about the Ishval Civil War—or to be more accurate, the Ishvalan War of Extermination, but he doesn’t have to for Pride to know what happened there.

He was there observing things after all, unobtrusively, from the shadows, whenever Sloth didn’t need monitoring, intervening when necessary to make sure that the conflict would be bloody and soaked in misery enough to become an Intersection.

It was far from the first time—this was the last of the Intersections that was needed, outside of all their preparations in Central—and as always, it had been laughably easy to push the humans into conflict.

All that bloodshed and misery—all Envy had to do was fire a shot at a child and Wrath give the orders, and then all the humans were perfectly content to go mad all on their own.

All they needed was an excuse.

Although—he supposes that Mustang and Hughes did get something different out of that experience.

They didn’t break like that weakling Armstrong or Marcoh—they actually wanted to  _ change  _ things.

As if anyone could change Father’s plan.

The arrogance of some people.

Still—he did have to admit that it was—not admirable because there is nothing admirable about humans, but somewhat amusing that even after seeing all the horrors war could offer, they still thought they could change anything.)

They are all quiet for a bit before Selim opens his mouth and says, “So, O-Chibi, you’re going to head back home?”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY ITTY BITTY MIDGET YOU FU—!” Ed immediately yells, hopping off of the bed and breaking the glum silence.

Hughes also at almost the same time points a finger at Ed and glares at him. “Language Ed! And my son is not a brat—he’s a little angel! The same as Elicia! Oh right—you guys haven’t seen Selim and Elicia’s latest class photos, have you? Elicia just started preschool, so she was so excited—and Gracia gave Selim such a fetching little hat for that day, I have some copies here—”

“You know what we don’t have anything of, Ed?” Al says loudly as Hughes scrambles for his wallet. “Any photos of Pinako and Winry with us!”

“That’s because every time we go home, Winry is too busy attempting to murder me with a wrench for screwing up her precious automail,” Ed grumbles, rubbing the back of his head.

Selim can practically see Hughes’ ears perk up. “Ohhhh, she gets worried when you get hurt, does she?”

Ed stares blankly at him. “When the automail she made for me gets busted up, yeah.”

“Ah, young teenage love,” Hughes muses, a dopey smile on his face. “I met Gracia when we were teenagers you know—older than you, but still. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of me at first, but I swept her off her feet not too long after—you said you guys were childhood friends right? You probably don’t need too much advice since you should know what she likes then, but if you ever need someone to ask—”

“WINRY IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!” Ed protests, his face tomato red. “She’s just my mechanic!”

Hughes snorts. “Mechanic, is that what they’re calling it these days… Selim, whenever you have someone you like, make sure just to tell them directly, it’ll save you a lot of trouble in the long run.”

“Of course, Papa,” Selim says sunnily, kicking his feet back and forth under the chair. “I won’t be dumb like the shortie here!”

“Why you little—!”

The Elric brothers create a fairly lively ruckus that seem to distract Hughes enough from dwelling on things or asking Selim any pressing questions (it had been perhaps too hasty of him to call Mustang like that, but speed had been of the essence there to protect precious human sacrifices), and the next day, they head off to their hometown with that coward Armstrong guarding them and a promise to be back by Elicia’s birthday party.

In the meantime, Hughes helps him brainstorm what to get Elicia for her birthday. Hughes has of course plans for impractically enormous stuffed animals, but Pride can do better than that—he has carefully written down all his shadow puppet stories into a leatherbound book that Hughes simply gushes over.

“Amazing, Selim!” he praises as he flips through it. “You definitely could be a writer someday! Or even right now! Do you want your mother to ask around about publishers? I’m pretty sure there’s a few in her book club…”

“No need, it’s just for Elicia!” Selim beams up at him.

(There’s no need to look for publishers when the Promised Day is so soon.

Soon enough he will need to prod Wrath into sending Hughes and the family off to Xing or somewhere else that’s as distant.

With Hughes out of the way, they can simply apprehend Hawkeye as well, and then Mustang will be isolated and alone.)

“Still, you’re so imaginative, Selim,” Hughes muses as he reads through one of the stories. “Pirates and mermaids and wizards—where do you get all these ideas?”

“Other books and stuff,” Pride shrugs, “Elicia helps too—the fairies and mermaids were her idea.”

“Of course, both my children are geniuses after all!” Hughes coos, carefully setting the book aside. “And so athletic as well—being able to run all the way from the Tucker house to the hotel is no small feat, even if you were in mortal fear for your life!”

“I don’t really remember,” Pride replies, instantly on guard. “It’s all kind of a blur…”

Hughes hums. “Makes sense. It must have been terrifying—catching a glimpse of Scar in that alleyway right before he entered the house—”

“Maybe—maybe I saw him in the house before you guys went in?” Pride interrupts, his face screwed as if in concentration (he can fix up the story here a bit at least—and not fall for whatever trap Hughes is setting up here—the man is an intelligence officer for a reason after all). “In the window—just a flash.”

Hughes nods slowly, his eyes intent on Pride. “Did you happen to see anyone else in the house at the time? Because Nina is still missing, and we don’t think Scar was the one who absconded with her.”

Pride shakes his head, letting his eyes well up for good measure. “Sorry Papa, I don’t think I saw anything…”

“Aw, shh, shh, shh, it’s okay—here,” Hughes says, engulfing Pride in a warm hug. “You’re already doing such a good job—anything you can remember is great, okay kiddo?”

“Okay,” Pride nods tearily and sniffles a bit to drive his pitiful appearance home. “I’ll—I’ll try to tell you anything I can remember, Papa!”

“That’s my boy,” Hughes says, ruffling his hair. “Never forgets a thing!”

(If he only knew.)

Hughes wants to keep fussing over him after that, but Pride plays up his need for quiet to keep up his studies (calling what the humans make him learn in school “studies” is laughable, but he digresses), and Hughes agreeably goes down to the lobby to go bother Mustang some more.

In the meantime, Pride can finally focus on overseeing Lust and Gluttony’s hunt.

Unfortunately, by the time he turns his attention to them, Lust informs him that while they did manage to corner Scar in the sewers, the man had then collapsed the tunnel and escaped.

“ _ Escaped? _ ” he hisses, his shadows thrashing about.

Lust barely looks up from where she’s examining her claws. “Yes, but we got some substantial hits on him, so he should die of blood loss even if he gets away.”

“‘Should’ is not nearly good enough, Lust,” he snarls, glaring at her with his many eyes. “I just knew I shouldn’t have left the search to you—”

“But you did since you’re so busy playing a human child these days,” Lust says with a toss of her hair before she gives him a sly look. “You could have consumed him right when you saw him, why didn’t you?”

“Hughes was there, it would have blown my cover.”

“Hughes….yes,” Lust says, tapping a finger to her chin. “A smart, wily operator to be sure, but don’t tell me Pride the Arrogant couldn’t have thought of a way to deceive him while still ensuring that this new threat to Father’s sacrifices is eliminated?”

“Obviously, but I didn’t see the need at the time since I had thought that you would be capable of dealing with the threat yourself, but alas, all your time spent in the sidelines must have weakened your abilities,” Pride replies, letting his shadows drag closer to Lust. “I sadly overestimated my siblings again. I wonder if you are really of any use anymore…”

“Oh Pride, you’re always mistaken,” Lust says sweetly. “And need I remind you, I do all the work you can’t, stuck in your little shell as a tiny human spy. I eliminate, I destroy, and I infiltrate—really, you could almost say I’m Father’s right hand these days.”

“You presume much to call any of us part of Father,” Pride hisses, looming over her. “Father is Father, and we follow his will in all things, as children should, and we are all fulfilling our part of his plan. Or are you like Greed, now thinking above your station?”

Lust recoils, her mouth pursing a bit. “I am  _ nothing  _ like that traitor.”

“Good, then you would do well to remember it,” Pride booms, “I will not be able to stay in East City much longer, but you and Gluttony scour the city. Find Scar’s body to bring to Father, or I will have to bring up your subpar performance to Father himself.”

Lust’s eyes narrow. “Try it. Then I’ll have to ask what you have been up to this entire time—surely while pretending to be a child and snooping in on conversations, the eldest of us could spare some time to have made a sweep himself?”

(….he should have.

He had been a bit preoccupied reassuring Hughes and writing out Elicia’s birthday gift though.

Not that he’s going to admit that to Lust.)

“It is not your place to question me, second-born,” he booms, writhing up to his full height and letting his maw open wide for a second. “I have been busy with important matters that are vital to the Promised Day, and that is all you need to know.”

“…fine,” Lust says, drawing away, a scowl on her face. “Very well—then let’s go our separate ways and carry out Father’s plan as always, shall we?”

Pride doesn’t even deign to answer that, starting to recede back to his shell.

“But Pride,” Lust calls out, letting one of her claws extend out to play with her hair. “Remember—if wily Maes Hughes gets too close to the truth, you will need to contact us to make sure he’s taken care of cleanly.”

“As if I need you to remind me of that,” he scoffs as he at last returns to his shell and frowns at the open history textbook on his desk.

(Lust is acting above her station, thinking that Pride would actually permit Hughes to get too close to anything about Father’s real plan.

He’s an information officer, yes, and Mustang’s main source of news, but in the end he is just human, and Pride has done a good job making sure certain files go missing from his study or office at opportune times.

He’ll just have to make sure that Wrath keeps the Xing trip for the Hughes family away from Lust—she’ll apparently just get the wrong idea.)

There’s a knock on the door, and Pride quickly props up the textbook and scribbles a few random notes on the notebook beside it. “Come in!”

Hughes pokes his head in and beams at him, “Sorry to bother you kiddo, but we’re probably going to start heading to the train station in like an hour or two. You about to wrap up your studies soon?”

“Done!” he beams right back at Hughes, setting the textbook aside and hopping off of the chair. “I can’t wait to see Mama and Elicia again!”

“Aw, I also can’t wait to see them again, I’ve missed them so much!” Hughes says, scooping up Pride into a hug. “And they’ve also missed  _ you  _ so much!”

“I know,” Pride says, securing his arms around Hughes’ neck and putting up with his scratchy beard against his cheek. “Elicia sounded so sad…”

“She’ll be better when you get home and won’t tell sad stories to your goldfish anymore,” Hughes reassures him, patting his head.

(Said goldfish has already been hollowed out to become another receptacle that Pride can stuff shadows into, and it comes in handy for observing the house and checking in on Elicia.

Sadly it can’t talk or anything, but he did hear her prattling stories told to both the fish and Quilt.

They’re all about her brave big brother, master of shadows and defender of princesses, always smart and knowing exactly what to do—and when he doesn’t, his parents, the loving King and Queen always do.

She’s not bad.)

“That’s good,” Pride replies, smiling up at him. “I can’t wait to give Elicia the best birthday party ever!”

(Nothing was going to ruin that, that was for sure.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do you think Nina will be with Greed's group? How did you like Pride and Greed's interactions (you'll be getting a lot more of them). How did you like Hughes trying to fight Scar? Do you think Roy is starting to chip at the truth here? How in denial is Pride that he's already attached? (Very) How did you like Hughes' shipper tendencies? Does Lust already know how far Pride is getting from the plan? Please leave comment/kudos!
> 
> So I didn't think Pride would have much of a connection to Nina--in fact I wonder a bit if he might resent her for taking up everyone's attention, not of course that he would realize that.
> 
> I really had fun writing Dolcetto and Martel--Greed's group is just so great. 
> 
> The next update probably won't be next week, sorry guys, have some fandom events and things piling up, but once I get those done, I'll get another chapter up as quickly as possible!


	4. Hughes: Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elicia's birthday party leads to a few revelations for Hughes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes it's the chapter you may have been waiting for! And thank you to Museflight for beta-ing this chapter!

Hughes would much rather be carefully picking the perfect giant stuffed animal to gift to Elicia on her birthday (Elicia does love teddy bears and cuddly octopuses, but was it possible that she would like a giraffe  _ more _ ?) along with checking over the birthday plans (Gracia as ever has everything well in hand, but it never hurts to have a second pair of eyes checking over things), but unfortunately some  _ degenerate  _ had the gall to burn  _ the First Branch of the National Central Library  _ down, and now they were missing so many different court martial documents, along with who knew what else.

Thankfully, he now had Sheska, courtesy of the Elric brothers (they really were growing up to be fine young men, Roy should be proud), but she could only write so fast, so it was still a slow going process to restore their records.

And then there was that awful hunt for Scar.

(He has to say—he’s somewhat sympathetic towards the man.

His entire family wiped out, his nation destroyed, whatever pain and suffering he had personally endured—

Who wouldn’t go crazy after that?

And—in his heart of hearts—it’s not like some of the people who Scar had killed didn’t deserve to die—Tucker for example, Hughes would have liked to stab himself—

But he had also killed people like Basque Grand, and he had even wanted to try and kill Ed despite Ed having had absolutely nothing to do with the war.

Scar has to be stopped, that’s true—but he hopes to put him on trial and not have to kill him.)

The trail had gone cold, with just a jacket and a deadly amount of blood left in the sewers. Some people are tempted to say that maybe he had died, but that just leaves Hughes with more questions—firstly, who had managed to take him out? That man had been no slouch—even Armstrong couldn’t seem to land a solid hit on him. And second—where’s the body if he’s really dead?

He had seen Scar’s eyes—that was a man consumed by demons and who wouldn’t be able to rest until he achieved his goal.

Scar is just one more nightmare to join the rest of the ones he has of Ishval—although he still puzzles over what the man had said while fighting him.

What demons had he been talking about? Had he just been being metaphorical?

“The shadows have eyes”—what did that even mean?

…could it have anything to do with the strange figures Ed had said he’d seen in the creepy, now exploded, Fifth Laboratory?

And where was Nina?

(That’s what really haunts him—that poor little girl with a monster for a father.

He hadn’t really known what they could do for her when they had still known where she was. Roy had examined her and said that it would take an alchemist with far more knowledge of biological transmutation than he had to fix her so she would be in less pain, much less undo it all.

But still—where was she now?

Scar hadn’t killed her—Shou Tucker’s body had been obviously dumped like bloody garbage, but Nina had just disappeared.

Had she run away?

But then why hadn’t they found her yet? She couldn’t move very fast, and if she was wandering around, someone was bound to have seen her by now.

And then there’s how Selim’s story doesn’t really line up with the timeline at all—

It’s all too strange.)

“Darling, do you think Ed and Al’s Winry would like to also be invited to Elicia’s birthday party?” Gracia asks, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Hughes comes out of his dark thoughts to beam at his wife. “Of course she would! How could anyone not want to come to our little angel’s celebration?”

Gracia smiles at him. “I suppose so—do you know where she’ll be staying?”

“I think Ed and Al wanted her to go to a hotel?” Hughes says, leaning back. “I did say they could all room together here, but Ed nearly blew his top off…”

Gracia lightly swats his shoulder. “Of course he would, Ed is a shy boy!”

“I don’t think anyone besides you has ever described him that way,” Hughes muses, rubbing his shoulder. “I’m just trying to give them a little nudge there—”

“I know you mean well, but they’ll have to figure things out at their own pace. ” Gracia gives him a look. “They will make an extremely cute couple some day, but they’ve got a bit of growing up to do in the meantime. They’re just 15 after all—that’s ridiculously young.”

“True, true,” Hughes says, patting her hand. “There’s plenty of time after all…we didn’t even meet each other until we were 19!”

“And then you didn’t convince me to date you until college. ” Gracia smiles back, giving his hand a squeeze. “If this is a preview of how you’re going to be when Selim and Elicia get older, remember—kids don’t like being matchmade.”

Hughes pulls a face. “Eugh—dating—can anyone really deserve our two precious babies? Can they really?”

“I’m sure someone will treasure them as much as we do,” Gracia replies with a soft smile, looking out into the distance. “How can they not?”

“…true,” Hughes says, but then adds, “Still—are there boys invited to Elicia’s birthday party? Any girls that she’s particularly close to?”

Gracia pins him with a stare. “Maes Hughes, you are not terrorizing any of Elicia’s friends at her birthday party.”

Hughes pulls a glum face but nods. “Alright, my dearest, I’ll try my best.”

“Good. ” Gracia nods. “We’re going to have enough trouble keeping all the kids together—and did Selim invite any of his friends?”

“I don’t believe so?” Hughes replies, sorting through the invitations on his desk. “He said it was Elicia’s special day, and that all the guests should be her friends.”

Gracia frowns slightly, her hand propping up her elbow as the other goes towards her cheek. “Maes—do you think—do you think Selim is bullied at school?”

Hughes goggles at her. “ _ Bullied?  _ I always thought he was well-liked and admired at his school!”

“I thought so too, and all his teachers only ever have glowing things to say about him, but—well, haven’t you noticed how he never brings anyone back to the house? Or wants to go to a friend’s house to play?”

Hughes begins to frown too, moving his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Now that you mention it—but he always talks about friends at school! And you know, he has gone to a few birthday parties.”

“Ones where the entire class was invited over,” Gracia says, her fingers tapping against her cheek before she sighs. “I’m probably overthinking it—but I do wish he’d confide in us more about that awful orphanage he was at. I feel like maybe—I don’t know what happened there.”

“Yeah, but—he’s happy with us, right?” Hughes says, standing up and hugging her from behind. “And well—if it takes some time for him to want to invite friends over or tell us anything—that’s fine, we’ve got time after all, right?”

Gracia nods and then sighs, leaning back against him. “Yes.”

“And have you seen Selim order Elicia around?” Hughes asks teasingly, resting his head at the curve of her neck. “I’m fairly sure that anyone who tried to bully our son would have to watch his back.”

“Not the least because you’d be after them so fast, I wouldn’t even have time to call Roy to restrain you from threatening a child,” Gracia sighs then smiles.

“As if you wouldn’t have descended upon them too and have reduced them to tears with mere words,” Hughes adds with a grin, kissing her neck.

“…probably,” Gracia admits, reaching up and turning her head to give Hughes a proper kiss before gently detangling herself from him. “As much as I’d love to stay and see where this goes now that your ribs are finally fine and your arm is out of that sling, I have to go buy everything I need for the birthday cake and icing. I think I’ve also figured out how to make buttercream icing flowers so they look pretty but also taste good.”

“Yum,” Hughes grins and coos. “My wife is so talented~”

Gracia smiles before waggling her fingers at him. “You can show your appreciation for me tonight. Oh, and by perhaps making up the sofa in the living room. If Ed isn’t willing to share a room with Winry, then Winry can have the guest room while Ed and Al have the living room.”

“Sounds like a plan, and I can’t wait. ” Hughes grins at her.

(He really is such a lucky man.

He deserves none of it, but he endeavors to still be the husband and father that Gracia and Selim and Elicia all deserve.)

Winry is a nice cheerful girl, except apparently when confronted with broken automail, and then she has a wrench ready and sharp words to exchange with Ed. They bicker back and forth, barely stopping for breath even around the dinner table, as Al makes calming motions and apologetically says, “I’m sorry, they’re always like this. Especially after big brother breaks his arm…”

“IT WAS IN THE COURSE OF DUTY. IT HAPPENS!”

“THAT WAS MY  _ MASTERPIECE, ED!” _

“And I’m giving you the opportunity to make another, so really if you think about it, you should be thanking me instead—”

Winry looks on the verge of pulling out a wrench again when Gracia clears her throat and looks at all of them.

“Shall we start eating?” she asks sweetly, gesturing to the lovely dishes on the table. “I thought this would be a nice spread. I did spend all afternoon on it…”

Ed and Winry instantly look sheepish, Ed quickly digging in while Winry also takes a bite and says, “Oh, you really didn’t have to, Mrs. Hughes—oh wow this is good…”

“Gracia’s cooking is always the best!” Hughes beams at them and then sends a grateful look at his wife.

(At least now he knows that whenever Selim and Elicia become teenagers, Gracia will definitely know how to handle them.

Of course, Selim and Elicia will be  _ much  _ better behaved, he’s sure.)

“Shortie, in school we learned that you should eat more, or else you’ll never grow taller,” Selim informs Ed with a huge grin on his face. “At this rate, I might be able to grow taller than you soon!”

Ed clenches his fist around his fork, opens his mouth, sees Gracia smiling mildly at him, then closes his mouth and says through gritted teeth, “That’s  _ very  _ unlikely. Scientifically impossible.”

“Big brother will grow super tall!” Elicia cheers, beaming at Selim. “Almost as tall as Papa!”

She then turns to stare at Winry while Ed is busy fuming into his green beans. “Your earrings are pretty!”

“Aw, thanks. ” Winry beams at her, her hand going up to touch the studs there.

“Did they hurt?” Elicia persists.

Winry frowns and then makes a see-saw motion with her hand. “A little? Not too bad—getting it pierced is more like a prick of a needle—maybe a little like getting a shot? Then it aches a bit, but eventually you get used to it.”

Elicia rubs her ears with both her hands, shaking her head and whimpering a little. “…I don’t like getting shots…”

“It’s okay Elicia, we can get you clip-on earrings,” Selim says authoritatively, patting her hand. “They’ll be really pretty too!”

Elicia cheers up instantly, looking at her big brother. “Will you wear them too?”

“…sure,” Selim says magnanimously.

Ed snickers a bit. “You’re going to look  _ great _ , Selim.”

“Of course, everyone has to join in on the fun,” Selim says with a smile, looking around at everyone at the table. “Right, Elicia?”

“Right!” Elicia cheers.

Which is how when the day of the birthday party dawns clear and bright (just like Elicia!), the entire Hughes household, plus the Elric brothers and Winry, are all wearing dangly clip-on earrings.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Ed mumbles, looking at himself mournfully in the mirror.

“I think I look rather fetching!” Al says cheerfully, moving his massive hands up to the dangly pink clip-ons that Elicia had bestowed upon him.

“Both of you look great,” Winry smirks, with her hands on her hips before turning over to Gracia. “There’s a camera somewhere here, right?”

“As if Maes would ever let an opportunity pass for family photos,” Gracia says dryly, motioning over towards him. “We have a special deal for film given how much we end up buying and developing.”

Hughes immediately takes a picture of everyone gathered in front of the mirror, beaming while his aqua earrings swing. “My perfect family has to be immortalized through film!”

Elicia comes into the room, with Selim helping her push the door open, and she immediately has the cutest, biggest smile as soon as she spots everyone.

“Everyone looks so cool!” she says, her eyes shining.

“Hey, how come Selim isn’t wearing earrings?” Ed immediately complains, pointing at Selim.

Elicia quickly comes over to Gracia and holds up two sets of clip-on earrings, one red and one black. “Which one for Selim?”

“Hmm…they’ll both look good,” Gracia muses, crouching down to touch their daughter’s hair before turning to Selim. “What do you think, Selim?”

“Black,” Selim answers immediately, taking them from Elicia’s hand and clipping them on.

(Selim does have a tendency to gravitate towards black despite saying that red is his favorite color.

Hughes just hopes that whenever he goes through his possibly angsty teenage phase, he doesn’t try to paint his entire bedroom black. He feels as though that would be far too depressing for his mental health.

Maybe a dark violet instead?

Well—it wasn’t Selim’s birthday yet, it was Elicia’s, and it was her special day!)

“Yay, big brother looks cool now too!” Elicia claps her hands together in delight as she puts the red clip-on earrings onto her own ears. “Now we match!”

“Awwwww, you guys do! Smile guys!” Hughes coos as he takes aims his camera at them.

Selim instantly wraps his arms around Elicia to give a big hug, and there are many other photo-worthy moments like that throughout the entire party. There’s all of Elicia’s friends from school gathering around her, all fighting over who gets to wish her happy birthday first (Hughes is only prevented from shoving the boys to the back of the line by Selim declaring a competition of shadow puppets to see who goes first, and of course, Selim is the shadow puppet master), there’s the delight in all the kids’ eyes when they get a balloon (and he has photographic evidence that Ed was delighted for a split second as well), there’s the giant bouncy castle they have outside that all the kids (including Selim) seem to adore, running and jumping through it over and over again until they’re all tuckered out, there’s the absolutely massive three-tiered masterpiece of a chocolate cake with strawberries that Gracia had lovingly made and stuck three candles into, Elicia blowing out the candles and making a wish as everyone clapped, and of course, the massive pile of presents that Elicia has to open (Selim helps her the entire time, instructing her to use her nail to only open the gift along the tape that holds the wrapping paper together so that Gracia can later reuse the wrapping paper again).

And also, while the kids are all running around frantically having fun, and in between Hughes’ attempts to properly chronicle all that, he does manage to get in a few good talks with the Elric brothers and Winry.

Ed and Al seem to have figured out whatever issue was bothering them after the lab with what seemed to be a good dose of common sense from Winry. Winry seems to take comfort in that, confiding in him that she tends to worry about all the dangerous situations the boys get themselves into and then don’t tell her about.

“I know they don’t want to worry me—but sometimes it just makes me feel more worried,” Winry says, biting her lip.

“That’s true,” Hughes acknowledges, cleaning his glasses and watching Gracia as she laughs with some of the mothers who had arrived with their kids as she sets out some fruit punch. “…I try not to let Gracia worry too much either—but if there’s something really serious, I do tell her. It’s not good to handle things yourself, and I think Ed and Al know that too? They did end up telling you about Al’s confrontation with Barry the Chopper after all?”

Winry snorts. “They could hardly hide it, the way they were fighting…but yeah, I guess you’re right. Sorry for bothering you about all that, Mr. Hughes.”

“Please, advice is the least I can give!” Hughes says, waving her off. “Wow, that was some deep discussion—you should really go enjoy the party! Ed and Al look like they’re having fun!”

“Well, Al definitely is,” Winry comments, looking over to where Quilt is stuck on Ed’s head while Al lovingly strokes his fur. “I think Ed is just barely managing to not explode.”

“You know him so well!” Hughes twinkles at her, placing both of his hands by the side of his cheek.

Winry stares blankly at him. “Well—yeah. Both him and Al, we practically grew up together. It was a small town, and our families were close.”

(Damn, none of his hints seem to be getting anywhere with her.

Well, Gracia is probably right; certain things can’t be rushed.

He’ll just usher them together some more so maybe they can act more like teenagers at a party rather than kids who have had too many responsibilities heaped onto their shoulders too young.)

“I think you’d better go save Ed,” Hughes says decisively, glancing over at where Ed has fallen onto the grass. “Al is too much of a soft touch with cats.”

“As if you guys aren’t all so soft on Quilt—I’ve seen his food bowl, I think he eats better than some people,” Winry says laughingly, standing up.

“He’s a beloved part of the family!” Hughes insists as he walks over with Winry.

“He’s a  _ monster,  _ that’s what he is!” Ed declares, finally managing to pry Quilt off his face and holding him at arm’s length. “How do you even keep him near your kids???”

Al plucks Quilt out of Ed’s hands and cradles him. “Big brother, you just fought off monsters at a laboratory, how can you even compare them to Quilt?”

“Because  _ those  _ I could at least fight against—they definitely have something to do with alchemy with that symbol on them—Quilt however is a menace who even my own brother defends!” Ed shouts, half-heartedly kicking at Al’s leg with a clank.

“A symbol like an alchemy circle?” Hughes asks, “Kind of like Roy’s gloves so they don’t have to draw circles to do what they need to do?”

“No—not like that I don’t think,” Ed says, picking up a stick and drawing two symbols on the ground, one what looks like a snake devouring itself and the other a basic alchemy circle that even Hughes can recognize (it also—looks oddly familiar for some reason—it’s not really like Roy’s, that’s very specialized, but something else…). “See—they kind of look the same, but they’re not. Also I’m not even sure an alchemy circle could let them do all the things they did—that lady’s fingers just shot out like  _ claws— _ ”

“Yeah, based on what you described, it really doesn’t sound like it follows the laws of equivalent exchange.” Al nods. “But if they had a Philosopher’s stone powering it—”

“Yeah, that might work—but that still wasn’t an alchemical circle,” Ed points out. “And I feel like she’d need an alchemical symbol on her hand anyway to do that, and it wasn’t on her hand, it was on her chest—”

“Why were you staring at her chest?” Winry asks in a mild tone.

“I wasn’t  _ staring  _ at it, it was just right there!” Ed protests hotly. “It was very obvious!”

“So,” Hughes quickly cuts in before Ed can dig any deeper of a hole for himself. “the alchemical circle would need to be on whatever she wanted to change to power whatever she wanted to do? So presumably—if she carried around an alchemical circle big enough that she was completely standing in it, she could change her entire body?”

“Well—yeah I guess she could, but like that’s a pretty big circle, and doesn’t sound super portable in a fight?” Ed replies.

“It could still be useful in a fight though if you had some big ones or something set up ahead of time,” Al argues, sitting back while petting Quilt. “You could even set a trap of sorts—get them to go inside the circle and then activate it.”

“You’d have to be close by to do it. ” Ed frowns. “And also the bigger the circle, the more it’s going to need to power it, so you’d have to be sure to also pile tons of stuff in the circle—and then what if something extra gets into it while it’s activated? That’d be a disaster—it’d kill whatever got in for sure in search of more things to power it up.”

(That for sure sounds like something Amestris would love to weaponize, and it’s surprising that they hadn’t done so already.

Since when did they ever care about collateral damage that got caught in the way?

They hadn’t cared in Ishval, and they certainly didn’t seem to care now in Reole with that conflict brewing over there, or in the Northern and Western clashes around the border—

Wait.

Ishval, Reole, then the North and the West—

If you thought of Amestris as a circle—which it roughly was—and the conflicts as points on the circle—wouldn’t it look approximately like the alchemical circle that Ed had just drawn?

But no—that would be crazy—

Something that big—what would it even be  _ for _ ?)

“Are you okay, Mr. Hughes?” Al asks, peering at him worriedly. “You look a little pale…”

“I—I need to go check something—I’ll just go get Elicia up to bed, and then I need to make a call and then head out,” Hughes manages to say, quickly moving away and heading towards his daughter.

(It’s crazy,  _ completely  _ crazy—

He needs to check the records on Amestris’ various military conflicts, once he sees those, he can rest assured that it’s just his paranoid Intelligence officer brain throwing up weird ideas.

And if it’s not—

He’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it.)

He manages to pull on a smile to wave goodbye to Elicia’s little friends and take his darling daughter upstairs to get her all washed up and ready for bed, but he guesses he must be really rattled, because Gracia seems to notice something off.

“Are you alright?” Gracia asks, placing a hand on his back as he carries an all tuckered out Elicia to her bedroom.

“Yeah, I’m—something’s come up, and I’ve got to make a few calls and maybe go out to the office for a bit tonight,” Hughes says, setting Elicia down in her bed and tucking her in.

Gracia frowns. “…is it something serious?”

“I’m not sure—I hope not,” Hughes admits, reaching out to take both of her hands in his own before giving her a reassuring kiss on the cheek. “We’ll see—it may be nothing. Don’t worry about the trash from the party, I’ll tidy it up after I get back—”

“You go ahead, it’s obviously really worrying you,” Gracia says, reaching up to pat his chest. “Although I will leave the vacuuming for you to deal with—I really don’t feel like that right now.”

“As the organizer of the most perfect birthday party ever, of course you deserve nothing less than for the drudgery of vacuuming to be left to your husband,” Hughes answers with a smile, squeezing her hand before going to the phone.

After he gets off the call asking Sheska to go ahead and pull past Amestris major military actions for him in the records room (he’d feel bad, but she appears to basically sleep there), as he’s pulling on his coat, he’s stopped by Selim tugging on his sleeve.

“Where are you going Papa?” he asks, his dark eyes wide as he stares up at him. “Why do you need to go to the records room?”

Hughes crouches down so that they’re at eye-level. “Hey kiddo—there’s something I need to go look into there—it might be nothing, it’s okay.”

“…you’re not going to read me a story to sleep?” Selim asks, his eyes suddenly teary.

(Oh.

Damn, he can’t deny that request—it’s been a super long time since Selim has  _ ever  _ asked for a bedtime story.

Surely chasing ghosts and plots of conspiracies could wait an hour or so for his son?

…he’ll call Sheska and get her to organize it a bit more—maybe just read some stuff out over the phone—

No, that would get her too involved, better for him to leave no trace and just read through it himself.

Still—nothing is going to happen to those records—and even if something does, it’s not like there aren’t backups—Sheska herself could probably remember quite a bit.

And it is a mess in the house after the party, and he really should stay and clean a bit so Gracia doesn’t have to put up with a pigsty.

….first thing tomorrow then, no exceptions.)

“Of course I’ll read you a story!” Hughes says, immediately scooping up Selim (thankfully he’s still as light as ever—whenever he inevitably grows too big for Hughes to carry, he’s going to be very sad). “What would you like? Grimm’s? Or one of your own?”

Selim beams at him, “I think I’d like  _ Tales From the Hinterland. _ ”

Hughes’ smile freezes slightly, but he simply nods and walks up the stairs to Selim’s room and grabs the creepy little book from the shelf. “Tales from the Hinterlands it is! Which story?”

He ends up reading the story of Alice Three Times and The Door that Wasn’t There (why Selim enjoys all these creepy stories he isn’t really sure—they’re fairly disturbing, and nothing like any of the stories that Selim wrote out for Elicia himself—but then again, Selim probably tailored the stories he wrote for Elicia since he was a good brother. These—well, when he gets older, Hughes is sure Gracia has plenty of horror novel recommendations for him) before Selim starts to look sleepy and yawns.

“Well then, time for bed, Selim,” Hughes says, putting the dark little book away while kissing Selim’s forehead and tucking him in. “Goodnight son.”

“Goodnight Papa. ” Selim yawns again, turning over. “Say good night to Mama for me…”

“I will,” Hughes says softly before petting Selim’s hair a bit and then getting up and heading downstairs to clean.

Gracia looks up as he comes down. “I thought I heard you up there—not going in for work?”

“Selim wanted some stories to be read to him, and I couldn’t resist,” Hughes says sheepishly. “I’ll go in the morning—it should be fine.”

“Aw,” Gracia coos, placing a hand by her cheek as she sets aside the cleaned trays. “Was it  _ Tales From the Hinterlands  _ again?”

“That very same creepy, creepy book that I still feel like wasn’t meant for children.” Hughes shudders.

“You just have no appreciation for horror.” Gracia shakes her head with a smile. “Some kids love scary stories!”

“And then they grow up to giggle through horror movies as their significant others cower in fear.” Hughes sighs forlornly.

“It’s good for you,” Gracia says seriously before her lips quirk up into a smile. “Well—if you’re sure that you don’t have a work emergency—have you talked to Roy about it?”

(He probably should but—

It’d be better in person, who knows who is listening on the phone.

And besides—all he has right now are just coincidences and strange happenings, nothing concrete.

Better not to spook Roy over nothing, he has enough on his plate as it is since he’ll probably be transferring over to Central soon.)

“I’ll talk to him later,” Hughes decides, throwing the last of the confetti and streamers into the trash. “When there’s something to actually say.”

“Alright,” Gracia says, placing a hand on his arm and leaning in. “In that case—the party was a success, the kids are all tucked in, so what do you say to the two of us also getting clean and having some fun?”

“How could I ever say no to that?” Hughes grins at his wife, pecking her on the lips while letting his own hand drift steadily lower on her back.

Gracia giggles, and he can almost pretend for a second they’re young, dumb, and back in college again.

(Ah, to not know the horrors of war and what you’re capable of when pushed too far, and you just want to survive long enough to get back home—

But then no one would try changing the system in that case perhaps.

It’s not worth all the lives lost and ruined in Ishval, but at least with Roy’s goal, there’s something to work towards, and a hope that justice will be served in the end, no matter what.

Hope that there could be people in charge who care more about the cost of human lives.

But even—even with all the horrors he saw in Ishval—even with every case he’s gone through as an intelligence officer—the sheer  _ scale  _ of what he’s considering with all of Amestris’ past conflicts might mean—

That couldn’t be possible, could it?

That much sheer disregard for anyone?

He’ll probably go through the papers tomorrow and then laugh at how paranoid he’s been thinking and call up Roy to schedule a celebratory drink for when he transfers over. It’ll be fine.)

\--

Hughes reads the papers again for what must be the hundredth time and feels the mounting dread churning in his stomach.

(He keeps connecting the bloody dots, and they keep forming the same picture, even with some records missing.

One massive alchemicy circle around the entirety of Amestris.

But—

_ Why? _

Who could possibly  _ want  _ that? What would that even accomplish? Wouldn’t that require the death of every single person within the circle, and then—what? Some kind of massive Philosopher’s Stone? Who would even be left to make use of it?

This is—this is way beyond him—what little he knows about alchemy has come from pure osmosis of having Roy as a friend and the Elric brothers staying at his house—he needs to get Roy’s take on this—)

The door slams, and he jerks up to see a dark haired woman in a form-fitting dress standing there and smiling at him.

(Dark hair, tattoo like the one Ed had drawn out for him—

Shit.)

“Pleased to finally meet you, Maes Hughes. ” She smiles, her teeth a startling white against the blood red of her lips. “Or should I say goodbye—”

He’s thrown a knife at her head before he’s even really thought about it, but her claws are  _ fast _ , piercing into his shoulder even as he swerves away and hears a satisfying  _ thunk. _

(Does that kill these people though?

Or do you need to cut off the head or stake the heart like vampires or something—

Whatever, he needs to  _ get out  _ and tell Roy and the Führer what’s going on—)

He manages to hurry all the way towards his office, knives out and dripping blood everywhere (getting injured twice in the span of about a month—Gracia is definitely going to be worried), and has even managed to reassure his colleagues and pick up the phone to call Roy before he realizes—

(Anyone who can plan something on this scale—

Well, he doesn’t know how they did it without being  _ extremely  _ long lived—but who knows, maybe that’s what Philosopher Stones do if they’re big enough, he’s not the alchemist here—but they would have to be in control of the entire military to ensure that all this carnage would happen in all the correct locations.

There’s no way every single person in the ruling echelons of Amestris’ military council doesn't know about this.

Which means the Führer has for sure been compromised.

And that possibly every line here is tapped and any mention of this plan will get them all murdered faster than water dousing out Roy’s alchemy.

In fact—someone must already be  _ watching,  _ because how did that woman know—

He needs to find a public line outside and call Roy, and then the two of them can plan what to do next from there.)

He scrambles out as fast as he can, finds a telephone booth, and is busy arguing with an East City HQ telephone operator when he hears the click of a gun being cocked behind his head.

“Please hang up the phone, Lieutenant Colonel,” Second Lieutenant Ross’ mild voice rings out.

(Except—

Ross has a mole under her left eye, he remembers that, and this person—this person doesn’t.

Another one of those monsters?)

The—whatever it is laughs when he points that out, and splays her fingers out at her cheek as the skin shifts, and suddenly the mole appears. “Is that better?”

(… _ fuck. _

What is this—some kind of shapeshifter or something?

At least it doesn’t have claws like the other one, or else it should have already been able to impale him.)

“Your quick wits have gotten you into a lot of trouble this time, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes,” the person says, holding the gun steady.

“Hey, hey, hey, give me a break,” Hughes says, carefully letting another knife slip down his sleeve into his hand. “I’ve got a wife and kids waiting for me at home… and I can’t afford to die!”

He spins around, fully intending to embed another knife in another monster’s head but it’s—it’s Gracia standing there and pointing the gun at him now.

(How—

How did it know what she looked like—)

“You wouldn’t hurt your  _ own wife  _ would you?” The thing imitating Gracia smiles sweetly at him before twisting her face into a nasty grin and saying, “Or your  _ son _ ?”

Saying that, Gracia suddenly shrinks, and Selim appears in her place, grinning gleefully up at him. “Surprise! Oh my  _ god— _ that  _ look  _ on your face—hahahahahaha, and you don’t even know who he really is… boy, he’d be mad if he could see me right now. Not only am I going off plan, I’m even imitating him….”

(Selim—

He can’t stab him.

He can’t even bear to throw his knife at him—even knowing that this  _ thing— _ this  _ monster  _ isn’t his child—

He—he has to move—but it’s a  _ child  _ right now, and he  _ can’t again— _ )

“Well at least you don’t have to worry about pleasing him any longer.” The not-Selim smiles cheerfully and pulls the trigger—

And then something  _ tugs  _ at Hughes’ leg, sending him crashing down even in his frozen state, and the bullet grazes his shoulder instead of going anywhere more deadly.

The not-Selim clicks his tongue and shoots again, but this time Hughes is nearly thrown to the side by—a shadow? A shadow with eyes—

( _ The shadows here have eyes _ —

And Roy was right, Selim seeing Scar at Nina’s house and then managing to somehow run all the way back to the hotel to call him about it had never actually made sense—

And this monster almost acting as if it  _ knows  _ Selim—

What the fuck is going on here?)

“What are you  _ doing, _ Envy?” the rippling shadows growl out, lashing against Hughes’ body.

The not-Selim—Envy—pouts and lowers the gun a bit. “Lust is right, you’ve gone soft.”

“I haven’t gone  _ soft,  _ you’ve gone  _ dumb _ —not that you weren’t always a bit slow. What are you thinking, killing him right now? Mustang will be on our scent in no time—”

“He’s about to decipher all of Father’s plans, and you’re calling  _ me  _ slow?” Envy snorts and raises his gun again. “We need to put an end to him before he says anything—”

“I said  _ no— _ ”

Hughes tries to scramble up at the exact moment Envy shoots, and even though the shadow tries to reach for him, he feels it pierce somewhere around his torso.

( _ Ugh— _

His vision is already dimming—

This is  _ bad _ .)

“I am going to  _ rip you to shreds _ !” The shadows around him have risen up and are towering over Envy, some of them wrapped around him, shaking him and trembling in what looks like rage, while other tendrils break off to work at the phone. “You just wait—”

“Better hurry, Pride, he’s losing blood fast. ” Envy simply looks amused, although—he does seem to be sweating a bit in the shadow’s grasp. “Don’t know how you’re going to explain keeping him alive though. Still, he’ll probably be knocked out for at least a little bit.”

“Shut the fuck up, and  _ I know. _ ”

(That’s—

That’s Selim’s voice—isn’t it?

But—

How—

What—

_ Why? _

_ Darkness. _ )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how did you like Elicia's birthday party? Did you like Hughes and Gracia's conversations? How did you like Hughes figuring out the giant alchemical circle? Did you enjoy Pride intervening? (Hughes will live, I promise. The fallout might be messy though. Also, I had to have this as ch. 4 because you know, 4 and death). And of course, it's that 'I know' that gives Pride away--Selim says it too often for Hughes to not recognize it. 
> 
> Tales From the Hinterlands is a real book by Melissa Albert, first detailed in her book The Hazel Wood, and they're all deliciously creepy and messed up, so I thought Pride would get a kick out of them. (Gracia does too because Gracia has excellent taste in books, I have decided)
> 
> Please leave comments/kudos!


	5. Pride: Best Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otherwise known as, do any of Pride's plans work in this timeline?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we get Pride scrambling to keep things together a bit. This chapter was betaed by the kind Museflight!

Absolutely nothing was going according to Pride’s plan.

He’s not entirely sure how he could have prevented Hughes from making the wild intuitive leap to the greater transmutation circle that they’d worked so hard to set up around the country just from Ed drawing an alchemical circle on the ground (aside from the fact that he had been preoccupied with piggy-backing Elicia during that time, it wasn’t like Hughes hadn’t seen alchemical circles before, why should that one drawing have made a difference), but he had done his best to distract him from going to the records office that night at least—and that had worked.

If only Lust and Envy had actually been  _ on top of things _ and burned down the building that night, then they might have been fine!

But no, Lust had been with Gluttony, still trying to track down Scar (just more incompetence—he really doesn’t know why Father even bothered to make them), and Envy had been off, probably shifting into even more new forms to escape his ugly true self. So instead, Pride had done his best to make a few key documents go missing, but Hughes had  _ still  _ walked into the records building the next day and figured everything out over the course of a few more days.

There’s a reason he and Mustang are such close friends after all. Hughes is a  _ very  _ competent intelligence officer.

Competent enough and with enough of a reputation of brilliance that even without Pride sounding the alarm, Father had dispatched Lust and Envy at the first sign of Hughes poking around those documents to make sure that he wouldn’t talk to anyone about what he had learned.

And then—

(It wasn’t going against Father’s plan.

It was just—

It was modifying it a bit.)

Father is all-knowing and practically perfect obviously, but sometimes—well, he hadn’t interacted with a human in years, and Pride just knew that if Hughes died, that would set Mustang off on a rampage that could potentially be as damaging to Father’s plans as Hughes tipping Mustang off.

Granted, they definitely couldn’t let Mustang figure out the plans for the Promised Day. He’s just the sort of person who would be extremely effective at kicking up a fuss—and even if it wouldn’t be enough to overturn Father’s centuries-long plan, it would still be irritating.

So Pride had planned to perhaps knock Hughes out and get Wrath to ship him and the rest of the family off to Xing or some other place under armed guard, then forge a letter himself from Hughes to Mustang explaining the sudden trip abroad—and then Pride could remain in Amestris unfettered and oversee the rest of the operation.

He hadn’t exactly run it past Father yet—he was sure he would approve once he heard his reasoning, but it had been a pretty tight timeline, so he had been talking to Wrath about getting everything ready when Lust decided to launch the original plan instead.

(Goddamn Lust—constantly implying things and trying to usurp his position—

And with this, she really did force his hand, since technically, she was following all of Father’s original plans perfectly.

But he doesn’t have time to deal with Lust given that he has Envy mockingly laughing at him with  _ his own face  _ right now.)

He gives Envy a solid shake and hits them across the face hard enough that their neck snaps. “Change forms.”

Envy lets out an irritated clicking sound as they heal, now shifting into Gracia’s form. “Better?”

He doesn’t have  _ time  _ to deal with Envy’s petulant little viciousness, what with Hughes bleeding out right in front of him (how much blood does a human need to have? He never really had to know this before—this isn’t good, he called the hospital and listed out the address, but who knows how long it will take—), so he simply shoves them into the corner of the phonebooth, making their head rattle against the side, and envelopes them in shadows thoroughly so they can’t move. “ _ Change into something that won’t attract suspicion, you little pustule _ ,  _ or I’ll devour you whole. _ ”

Envy slowly starts to shift into a dog, grumbling the entire time, “Fine, fine—not like your plan is  _ not  _ going to attract suspicion—and he’s probably going to die anyway, given how long this is taking—”

“He is  _ not  _ going to die,” Pride says fiercely, keeping pressure on Hughes’ wound (that’s something you were supposed to do, right?). “I’m not letting that happen.”

“Wooooow, this is so weird—you actually caring about a human?  _ You _ ?” Envy lets out a disturbing bark-cackle. “Oh, Lust is going to have so much fun with this—”

“ _ You  _ won’t have time to go off gossiping and lazing about with Lust,” Pride snaps. “You’re going to be going off to Dublith with Wrath to investigate where Greed is.”

Envy stills, looking at him. “Greed? You found him? And you only mentioned this now?”

“It took some time to confirm his exact location,” Pride replies, the unsettling churning feeling in his stomach steadying as he hears the blare of an ambulance’s sirens approaching. “You’ll go through the town while Wrath goes there to potentially recruit someone as a State Alchemist.”

(He hasn’t actually informed Wrath of any of this but—

Wrath will listen to him, he always has.

Unlike the rest of this godforsaken family.)

Envy somehow manages to cast a doubtful look even as a dog. “…as much as I’ll enjoy beating Greed to a pulp, aren’t you forgetting a little something here? The human who knows everything Father is planning.”

“No human can know  _ everything  _ Father is planning,” Pride says haughtily. “I will handle that, you don’t need to worry about it.”

(First, he needs to make sure Hughes survives.

Then, he needs to divert Mustang’s suspicions elsewhere as much as he can, because that man isn’t going to take his friend getting shot lying down. He’s about to transfer to Central too, so that makes things trickier in some ways, but also easier to watch him.

After that—

Well, hopefully by then Greed will have been dragged back, so they can skip exactly how communication broke down so thoroughly that all this ended up happening, and then he can go with his original plan and get the entire Hughes family shipped off to Xing.

Simple, easy, fine.)

Envy’s tail swishes, and they shrug before walking away as they hear voices coming. “…alright, but even if Father doesn’t have questions, Lust certainly will.”

Pride doesn’t answer, simply widening his maw as a threat as Envy retreats, and then he returns to his vessel and puts his knees up to his chest as he watches and waits.

(He wants to tell Gracia and Elicia what has happened to Hughes—they will want to know—

But he can’t, there’s no explanation for why he would know such a thing right now.

All he can do is wait for the call and hope that these human doctors know what they’re doing.)

The chatter from the doctors is worried and unsure, and it seems like ages before he hears the ring in the house and Gracia’s gasp after she answers the phone.

From there it’s just a rush of tears and driving over to the hospital. The entire time, while Pride is letting Elicia cling to him like a limpet and Gracia hug him close, he’s trying to think of how to counter Lust and not about how his eyes seem to sting oddly.

(His vessel isn’t quite the same as a human body—it can only age so much, and it doesn’t have internal organs per say, but it does throw up weird human habits regardless sometimes.

It’s ridiculous—but it’s the form that Father mandated for him, so he supposes it’s right.)

Hughes has so many weird tubes and things hanging off him as he lies there pale in the hospital bed, and Gracia leaves him and Elicia with some nurse while she goes off to talk with the doctor, but of course, Selim can hear everything.

“Is Papa going to be okay?” Elicia whispers, huddled in his arms. The front of his shirt is already completely wet from Elicia’s tears.

“He will,” Pride replies authoritatively even as the doctor is telling Gracia about “surgery” and “blood loss” and “possible coma.”

(So—he sounds like at least he’s going to live, provided the surgery goes well.

That’s a relief—no Mustang on the warpath at least, and less tears from Gracia and Elicia.

And a coma would actually be a useful state for now—keeps him quiet while he gets Wrath to arrange things.

Although he just sent Wrath off to retrieve Greed.

…still gives him more time though.)

The rest of the night is just an awful combination of waiting, weird tasting apple juice, and this strange blend of boredom and dread.

Gracia tries to send him and Elicia off with some family friend, but Selim stands his ground, citing that both of them want to be here with their parents.

Gracia hugs him tight, smoothing down his hair. “Selim—I know you do, but it’s already so late—and there’s nowhere to really sleep here—”

“I’m not sleepy,” Selim replies (completely true—he doesn’t actually need sleep). “And Elicia can just sleep on me, it’s fine.”

Gracia shakes her head, her hands trembling as her eyes drift over to the doors that lead into the surgery. “…it won’t be comfortable for either of you here—and you must be hungry, we haven’t had time to eat at all.” 

“I’ll go to the hospital cafeteria and get some food for you guys,” Selim replies, standing up and pushing Elicia closer to Gracia. “Besides if you send us away, we’ll just be worrying the entire night, and we won’t be able to sleep at all, will we, Elicia?”

Elicia nods emphatically, her lower lip trembling. “Don’t want to leave!” she cries out piteously, clinging onto Gracia’s neck.

Gracia sighs before smoothing a hand down Elicia’s back while nodding and getting her purse. “…alright then. Here Selim—please just buy something for Elicia and yourself, I don’t think I can eat anything right now.”

Selim takes the money, but along with buying some meatloaf with veggies for Elicia, still buys some chicken pot pie for Gracia, because if there’s anything he understands about humans, it’s that they need to eat to survive.

(He can’t have both Hughes and Gracia falling apart on him. Who’d look after Elicia in that case?)

He delivers the food, lies to Gracia that he already ate in the cafeteria, and while the two of them are listlessly picking at the food, a doctor comes walking towards them. Gracia nearly drops her chicken pot pie out of her lap as she stands up, distractedly pats him on the head, and instructs him to watch over Elicia before heading over to talk to the doctor.

He grips Elicia tight while shamelessly eavesdropping and squeezes her even tighter when he hears the words, “….stable but unconscious for now.”

(Alright.

Alright, so he’ll live, that’s good.

Now he can go handle Lust and the rest with at least this off his mind.)

Gracia lets out a gasp that sounds like something between a sob and a choked thank you, and then hurries back to tell them the news.

“I’m going to stay here, but—but since they don’t know when Papa is going to wake up yet, you two go with nice Ms. Smith, alright?” Gracia gives them a kind of watery smile and gestures at the family friend who has arrived at the hospital at some point.

“What about you Mama?” Elicia asks, her eyes wide. “You won’t—is here safe?”

“I’ll stay here in case Papa wakes up—we don’t want him to be all alone, right?” Gracia asks, smoothing down Elicia’s blonde hair. “And, don’t worry, it’s safe here—Uncle Roy sent some extra people here too to guard Papa, so I’ll be fine.”

(Ah, so Mustang does know now.

Well, the extra protection detail is good, but it won’t be enough if Lust tries again and this time brings Gluttony along.

So—he should probably check-in and make sure she stands down, while still keeping an eye here just in case.)

“Alright Mama, I’ll watch over Elicia, no problem!” he says, clenching his fist to his chest.

Gracia gives a weak smile and hugs both of them again. “Such a good boy, Selim…but yes, go get some rest, children. I’m sure you’re both exhausted.”

Mrs. Smith takes them home and offers to tuck them in, but Pride authoritatively turns her down and gets Elicia all washed up and tucked into bed himself.

“Stay, Selim,” Elicia pleads, tugging on his pajamas as he turns to leave. “Stay!”

(It’d definitely be easier to conference with everyone in his own room, but he can do it here too.

Elicia is bound to just knock out at some point, it is  _ way  _ past her bedtime, and she has cried an exhausting amount of tears by now.)

“Okay,” Pride answers, opening up the covers and getting into the bed as well, while letting Elicia hug him close. “Good night, Elicia. Everything will be alright tomorrow, you’ll see.”

“Good night, Selim. Okay…I trust you…”

As Elicia’s breaths even out and she begins to snore, Pride casts himself out of his vessel and down into the dark depths where his brethren lie.

“Pride,” Father’s chilly voice rings out as he appears, “I see that you have intervened to save the life of that intelligence officer.”

“Yes,” Pride acknowledges, shifting a bit. “Of course he cannot be allowed to share his discoveries with anyone, but his death would open up many questions. Mustang is very smart, and the death of his best friend would enrage him and make him especially dangerous and ask many questions—”

“Pride, are you questioning me?” Father asks mildly. “Do you think you know better than your own father?”

“No,” Pride immediately answers. “I do not—there are however some details about the—characteristics of these humans that I have grown aware of with all the time that I have spent with them, so Lust and Envy striking out blindly on their own was ill-advised—”

“Lust and Envy were following my orders,” Father interrupts again in the same mild tone. “Your time as a spy is coming to a close regardless, there is nothing more that you can learn there—”

“I found Greed. While I was there,” Pride announces, playing his trump card as he feels unease slosh around his brain.

Father simply looks at him. “Ah. Yes, Envy informed me of that. You said that he should go travel with Wrath out to some small provincial town to retrieve him?”

“Yes—I am very certain he’s there,” Pride rushes to say. “He seems to have accumulated a number of chimeras as well—Wrath can easily deal with all of them, and he can be brought here to face justice.”

“I could use more resources for the Promised Day,” Father muses before nodding. “The plan is sound. Go inform Wrath of Greed’s powers and habits, and tell him to bring him back quickly.”

“Yes,” Pride acknowledges before shifting a bit. “And—and Hughes? There will be no further attacks against him? He is in an unconscious state now, so he is unable to impart what he knows to anyone, and Mustang has already posted up a guard around him, so he will get more suspicious if we attack him again—”

“Which is why you should have let the plan proceed as it should have,” Father says in the same mild tone.

“Envy was going to attract far too much notice—”

“Envy improvised a bit, but things would be much smoother if that intelligence officer had died then. As it now stands, Mustang is suspicious, and further action will be much trickier. However, Lust does have an idea of how to get better intelligence on his group, and when she is done, I am sure everything can be wrapped up smoothly.”

“….intel on Mustang is supposed to be  _ my  _ job,” Pride can’t help but snarl.

“Not one that you have done very well,” Father pins him with a look. “It was Lust who informed me how close that intelligence officer was getting to the truth—”

“If Lust hadn’t interfered, I could have stolen more information, and he would have never made the connection!” Pride protests.

“…you appear to be under the mistaken apprehension of what your job is, Pride,” Father says in a silky tone. “Let me remind you: you are to oversee Wrath and Sloth, and you are to keep watch over Roy Mustang and his compatriots, letting us know if they ever get too close. There is no need to try and sabotage their pathetic endeavors—you are obviously not very good at it. Well, that’s to be expected. I didn’t really design you that way, the way I designed Lust and Envy to be.”

(Being compared to Lust and Envy makes him want to  _ scream. _

It isn’t his fault that he’s limited by his vessel!

And Lust and Envy’s abilities are  _ nothing _ —he could devour them both without blinking!

Father never appreciates  _ anything  _ he does—

Not that of course, Father has to.

Father created him, and his purpose is to carry out Father’s will, and that’s—that’s always been enough for him.

Hasn’t it?)

Father waves a hand at him dismissively, “Go talk to Wrath, surely you can still handle that.”

(Father is disappointed in him.

Well that’s—

It’s never exactly like he got  _ approval  _ from Father in the first place—even when he performs all his tasks perfectly—even when he goes  _ above and beyond _ —all he gets is just a nod at most, nothing like the effusive praise or hugs that Hughes would give—

Hughes and Father can’t be compared of course.

Hughes is a mere human, while Father is the closest thing to a god at this point—and will become one soon for real after the Promised Day.

He’ll go talk to Wrath, and also arrange for Elicia and Gracia to leave Amestris with Hughes—it’s not like Hughes would be willing to go without his family anyway.)

\--

“…to Xing,” Wrath says carefully, setting aside the documents he had been signing to look directly at Pride. “You brought this up before, but you really want me to come up with some excuse to send them all to Xing?”

“It’s very remote and we have almost no direct lines of communication to that country, so Mustang will find it very hard to get over there,” Pride says then adds thoughtfully, “Also their language is entirely different, so Hughes will have a hard time communicating what has happened to anyone there. And even if someone does understand him, why would they care?”

Wrath folds his hands together and looks at Pride steadily. “…I heard that the original plan was for Hughes to be killed.”

“Lust and Envy jumped the gun—you know how Mustang is, if we had really killed off his best friend, that would have lit a fire underneath him, and we don’t need that right now,” Pride replies dismissively.

“Perhaps but—” Wrath hesitates for a bit before saying slowly, “I understand how you might have become attached to some of these humans—I am quite attached to my wife after all—but I feel as if sometimes you’re starting to miss the bigger picture and is it the case that—you have spent too long among humans, and you’re forgetting who you are?”

( _ What? _

_ Wrath _ —youngest and closest to the humans of all the homunculi—that Wrath—he actually dared to question him like  _ that  _ right now?

All his siblings are just piling in on him one after another—who was next, Gluttony? Father forbid—Sloth?

This couldn’t be allowed to stand.)

“ _ You  _ dare question  _ me? _ ” Pride draws himself up so that he’s spread almost across Wrath’s entire office. “ _ Me?  _ I know  _ exactly  _ who I am—I am Pride the Arrogant, Father’s first-born child, his right hand, one of the first beings that these humans all called ‘monsters’, and I have consumed enough souls and lived enough years that for all the people you have killed Wrath, you have  _ nothing  _ on me.”

“That is all true,” Wrath acknowledges, taking off his eyepatch so he can look at him fully with his ultimate eye. “Just see that you remember it, that’s all. This sending the Hughes family off to Xing—it reeks of human frailty. You want to spare them, but Father needs as many souls as possible to ascend to godhood—I am not even sending my wife away.”

“I am not trying to  _ spare  _ them—this is simply the easiest way to get Hughes out of the way without Mustang barging in and disrupting our plans,” Pride seethes, letting his jaw drop open a bit so that Wrath could see a few of the screaming souls inside. “The entire  _ reason  _ I was placed with Hughes was to make sure Mustang doesn’t get in the way, and this mess that Lust and Envy caused is already going to make Mustang start asking questions, so do you want to keep questioning me, or do you want to wait for Mustang to start plotting?”

Wrath waves a dismissive hand. “Mustang has always been plotting, for all the good that it does him. Weren’t you the one who always asked me what a mere human could do against Father?”

(That much is true.

Still—if there is anything he has learned with all these years of staying in the Hughes household and having Mustang obnoxiously tease him for being short and ruffling his hair, it’s that Mustang should never be underestimated.

On his own, he was a formidable sacrifice in his own right with his flame alchemy, but with Hughes, Hawkeye, and the rest of his team backing him, he started to truly become a threat.

So in that respect, eliminating Hughes would of course be an efficient way of removing one of Mustang’s most relied upon resources—

But Pride didn’t want that to happen.

Not because of any sentiment—of course not—just that his comprehension is superior to Lust and Envy’s, and that’s  _ final. _ )

“Father will always prevail of course, but why should we make the experience any more irritating than it has to be?” Pride demands, looming ever closer to Wrath’s desk. “Are you writing the Xing orders or not?”

“…I will write them,” Wrath says at last, drawing out an official looking piece of paper and starting to write it. “Since Hughes is now alive and Mustang has a guard all over him, I suppose it is the correct decision. I won’t report it to Father though, just because it seems as though—it could be perceived as mutinous. It won’t get processed until after I get back from retrieving Greed though.”

“That’s fine,” Pride says, snapping at him before drawing away again (the  _ nerve  _ of the man to even mention reporting something to Father—how could anything Pride do be mutinous at all?) “I will keep an eye on Hughes to see when he will wake. Oh—and do give my regards to Greed.”

“You can give them yourself when I bring him back,” Wrath shrugs.

\--

Greed is brought back with little issue, although Wrath does mention that it appears some of his chimera friends managed to escape.

Greed cackles at that, throwing back his head and grinning madly over the vat of boiling gold. “Good for them,” he rasps out. “Knew they’d be able to get away from you fuckers.”

“Language Greed,” Pride snaps from the shadows.

“Oh,  _ fuck you  _ Pride,” Greed snarls before turning his head and glaring at Father. “And I’d tell you to go to hell old man, except you’ve already been there. You better turn up the temperature real hot here and hope it burns every last shred of me away because let me tell you—if there’s anything left of me, I’ll get my fucking vengeance.”

“Time away from us has made you vulgar, Greed,” Father shakes his head. “Are those your last words?”

“Hm, let me think about it—fuck all of you— _ especially  _ you, Pride, Envy, and Wrath—and I’ll go see what hell is like before all of you come to join me there!”

There’s a lot of screaming and zapping as Greed is reduced down to just the shreds of his soul, which Father consumes, and although this should fill Pride with glee—the traitor finally having brought to the end he deserves, he still feels—uneasy.

Maybe it’s the haughty looks that Envy and Lust are giving him, or maybe it’s the way Father holds his gaze as he drinks down what’s left of Greed, or maybe it’s the fact that Hughes has yet to awaken and Mustang is busy investigating  _ everything  _ around what happened that day—

(He feels—

Almost as if he’s out of place here, which doesn’t make any sense, because if he belongs anywhere, it’s here.

He’s just a part of Father—the firstborn, the oldest, and the most powerful, but in the end, still just a part of a whole.

That’s just who he really is—and all this playing around with his vessel and pretending to be a kid, all of it is just an act.

An act that he’s done for centuries without any problems or any qualms at all so he’s not really sure why now—

But it has been different, going undercover full-time, with parents who have no idea of who he really is, who treat him and care for him as though he really is their own child, and with a sibling who actually adores him.

It’s—

If he admits that he’ll miss it when it’s all gone—is that a betrayal of Father’s cause?

No, right? Father doesn’t care really about how he, or for that matter, any of them, cares about what they’re doing as long as they get the job done.

And for years he has said the exact same thing, sneering at Greed’s complaints before he had run off, and frustrated over Envy’s fits of pique, but now he—

But he’s not the same as Greed.

_ He  _ would never run off and abandon the cause that Father has long labored towards, no matter how much he’s starting to understand—

What is  _ wrong  _ with him?)

“Mustang is busy sniffing around,” he announces loudly, trying to bury his intrusive thoughts.

“I am well-aware,” Lust replies, examining her nails. “We’ll direct towards Second Lieutenant Ross—Envy may have been careless, but at least he bought us an alibi. Unlike you—just giving us more problems.”

“How is the search for Scar going, Lust?” Pride shoots back, climbing and expanding across the walls. “Oh that’s right— _ you still haven’t found him yet _ .”

“In that matter, there will be a switch of priorities,” Father announces. “Pride—go find us someone to hunt down both Scar and that Crystal Alchemist. Lust will be better positioned here to watch over Mustang what with her new connections in his circle.” 

Pride draws a bit back at that.

(…did that count as a demotion?

He has been in charge of watching over Mustang for so long—but at the same time, Father  _ is  _ announcing that Lust failed at finding both Scar and that Dr. Marcoh, so that’s a plus.

And when Lust doesn’t manage to get any new information out of her new boyfriend and Mustang inevitably does something that messes up the plan, that will only make Pride look better as well.)

“Yes Father,” Pride inclines himself. “I will be sure to find him.”

“I hope so,” Father replies in a chilly tone, setting the glass aside. “You have been behaving strangely of late, Pride. I hope you will not follow your own will to unpleasant places.”

“I have no will but yours, Father,” Pride says, bowing down.

“See that you remember that.”

\--

Pride searches through Central himself, but Scar doesn’t seem to be there. That makes sense though, his last known sighting was in East City. Still, there’s no way for Pride to go over there, not with Hughes still in a coma, Elicia clinging to him like one of his own shadows, Gracia hovering worriedly around the house, and of course, the Elric brothers having returned with both Winry and some Xingese friend they had met in tow.

The Xingese friend is—a bit of a problem since Pride recognizes him on sight to be one of the many sons of the Xingese emperor, and looking at that sword on his back and the calluses on his hands, this was not one of the pampered princelings, but a martial artist who could most likely sense Qi.

Best to not engage—Pride has no way to hide from that, and thankfully he had spotted that Ling Yao before any of their confused group had noticed him, so he had managed to quickly duck out of the house with Elicia and get away.

Certainly an inconvenience—but thankfully the next day or so, Ling Yao wandered off to explore the city and then promptly got himself arrested, and Pride had advised Wrath to see to it that he was kept under lock and key for a bit.

(The Xingese practice a different system of alchemy that Father was not involved with, and they have annoying habits like sensing Qi.

He doesn’t know why a Xingese prince is here, but it is certainly both an inconvenience to Father’s plan overall, and Pride’s own plans in particular.

He’s not entirely sure how seriously Wrath takes him, but despite this dereliction of proper respect he still has a great many other things to worry about.)

Even with Ling Yao out of the way, the Elric brothers keep barging in and out of the house to check on them, so there’s no choice but to delegate—and since none of his siblings can be trusted at the moment, he has to resort to using humans.

However luckily, there is just the kind of cunning, wily, powerful human they need locked up in the jails of Central.

“So you’ll secure my release if I agree to go hunt for this Scar and Dr. Marcoh for you?” Kimblee tilts his head and looks with interest at Pride. “…interesting. It’s inexcusable that my symphony of destruction is incomplete of course.”

“Kill Scar on sight,” Pride orders. “Dr. Marcoh though, bring him in, we still have further use for him.”

“Breaking me out for just two people? Seems overkill, but who am I to complain?” Kimblee shrugs.

“There will be work for you later as well,” Pride says darkly.

(There’s still Briggs where they need to complete the last Blood Seal, and then Father’s circle will be complete.

And of course, the Crimson Lotus alchemist will be the perfect one to solve all these problems—and when he is done, Pride will just devour him to clean up the last loose end.)

A wide smile stretches across Kimblee’s face as he stands up and cracks his neck. “Excellent—it’s been too long since I’ve heard some explosions and screams. Do you want me to find Scar or Dr. Marcoh first?”

“…Scar,” Pride decides (best to clean up the earliest of Lust’s messes first). “He was last seen in East City—if he’s already dead, that is fine as well, but bring back definitive proof of that.”

“Good, good, I can finish my work from Ishval at last,” Kimblee hums to himself.

With that settled, and the release orders from Wrath arranged (with no back-talk this time or else he would have really been tempted to throw him around a bit to remind him who he ‘really is’), and the order to let Lust handle Mustang, Pride really should be focusing on checking on Hughes and keeping Gracia’s and Elicia’s spirits up (so he can maintain his cover of course).

But obviously, it wasn’t like Mustang wasn’t going to check in on the Hughes family, and it would be even more unlike Mustang to ask questions.

“I’m still trying to track down whoever called the hospital,” Mustang says to Gracia when he thinks both Selim and Elicia are asleep, sitting there with his hands propping up his head in thought. “They have to know something more about what happened that day.”

“It couldn’t have been Second Lieutenant Ross?” Gracia asks, pouring Mustang some coffee.

“No,” Mustang shakes his head, idly picking up the coffee but not drinking it. “I’m not so sure Ross even had anything to do with it.”

Gracia frowns. “But eyewitnesses saw her there—”

“There is a lot of evidence against her, and she is awaiting trial now, but I don’t think—it makes no sense for it to be her. She says she was visiting her parents, and I have found eyewitnesses to attest to that fact as well—so whether she is being framed is something I have to consider as well,” Mustang sighs, looking into his mug.

Gracia lets out a sigh as well. “Well—that’s good, I couldn’t understand at all how it could be her. Still—if it’s not her—then who?”

“Who else knew what Maes was investigating?” Mustang asks, leaning forward.

Gracia grimaces, taking a sip of tea. “No one, if you don’t even know. He just told me—that it was something he hoped wasn’t serious. You know Maes—he wouldn’t want to worry me with anything he didn’t have solid proof for yet, and if he didn’t tell you yet—it must have been something really big that he really wanted to be sure of before he told you.”

Mustang nods, his brow knitted in concentration. “I’ve tried looking up everything he was looking up—but I don’t know why he wanted to look at old military records—or for that matter, why someone would want to kill him over it.”

“It must have been something very important,” Gracia says quietly. “But something well-hidden—still, whenever Maes wakes up, he will tell you.”

“Yes,” Mustang says firmly, standing up. “Yes, he will. Do you want me to send some people to guard the house as well?”

“Do you think that’s necessary?” Gracia asks, looking around uneasily.

“I don’t know,” Mustang replies frankly. “It’s hard to see right now who our enemy actually is—I’ll at least station one or two to keep watch, and don’t ever hesitate to call, Gracia.”

“Of course,” Gracia says standing up and giving Mustang a wan smile. “Whenever Maes wakes up, you will be the first to know—after my children, of course.”

“Of course,” Mustang echoes and nods, gathering up his coat. “Well—the Lieutenant has discovered an interesting person, so I must go and question him.”

(An interesting person?

He could take a peek—see if it’s something Lust missed.

After all, even if Father had reassigned their missions, it would only be right for Pride to check in.)

Sending his shadows after Mustang, he realizes that apparently, one of the test subjects from Laboratory #5 had survived (another mistake of Lust’s, so sad) and had tried to attack Hawkeye ( _ big  _ mistake—he couldn’t have picked a worse possible human victim).

As Mustang and Hawkeye bundle off Barry the Chopper to a warehouse with Falman, Pride considers his options.

(He could inform Father and rub it in Lust’s face that he had found out first.

It could make him look better, but that would also bring up the fact that he had been spying when Father had reassigned him.

And—perhaps Lust would find out anyway from her new boyfriend soon, so really it’s a chance for him to hold some key pieces of information and watch for whenever Lust inevitably messes up to just neatly step in, smooth things over, and prove to Father once and for all, who the most superior of all his children really was.)

So he watches with a decent bit of glee as Mustang schemes and orders Barry the Chopper to go break Maria Ross out of jail (sadly, that also leads to Ling Yao getting broken out of jail, but as long as he keeps an eye out and makes himself scarce before the Xingese prince arrives, he’s safe). Lust’s next move is to release Barry the Chopper’s body, reanimated with a lab animal’s soul, to go hunt him. Of course, this leads to Mustang’s group chasing the body all the way back to Laboratory #3, and Pride is just getting ready to step in when he hears Gracia gasp and then let out a happy sob.

“Oh—thank you doctor! Yes, we will be over there immediately! Yes—of course, I’m bringing the children! Tell Maes I love him so much—darling! Oh—it’s so good to hear your voice—Selim? He’s fine—he’s been such a dear helping around the house and watching over Elicia—yes, of course. I love you, Maes, and we will be there soon!”

(…Hughes has woken up.

Hughes has woken up, and Wrath still hasn’t processed the Xing transfer papers yet because of this entire Maria Ross situation.

What is he going to do now?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So obviously the timeline is getting further away from that of the canon timeline, but hopefully you guys are following along! Also, did you like how the conversation between Wrath and Pride is reversed from their canon manga conversation? Who did you think survived out of Greed's compatriots (spoiler: one of them is Nina). And how do you think Kimblee is going to factor into this plotline? What did you think of Pride very slowly starting to rebel? And of course, what is going to happen now that Hughes is awake? Please leave comments/kudos!


	6. Hughes: Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hughes wakes up and the aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay guys! I didn't have power for 41 hours, and then the pipes started leaking, so...was kind of in a bad place for a bit. Still, it's better now, and I hope you enjoy the chapter! And thank you to Museflight for beta-ing the chapter!

The doctor and nurse chattering away while congratulating him on waking up is a nice distraction, but Hughes is trying to keep his breath steady and not end up fainting and falling into a coma again.

(They say he’s been out for nearly a month.

He guesses—he supposes it’s good he’s alive but—

That last voice he heard, coming from the shadows full of eyes—

That had been Selim’s voice, hadn’t it?

But—

No—he must have been hallucinating. The blood loss had gotten pretty serious by then, his doctor already told him he had been lucky to survive and that he should really thank whoever had called and gotten him to the hospital in time.

That—would have been that shadow, right?

But why would that monster have wanted to help him?

The other one—the one who had shifted into Second Lieutenant Ross’ form and then into Selim’s—had said some very strange things…

It had fought with the shadow and called it soft, called it Pride. The shadow had called it Envy, and mentioned someone else named Lust, so—the Seven Deadly Sins? They were themed or something?

But how does that all connect back to Selim?

It’s—it’s crazy to think that—to suspect that—

He must have been checking on too many conspiracies to even come up with that.

But—he had been right about the massive transmutation circle—which he  _ really  _ needs to tell about to Roy, stat—and then for this—

For this—

He needs to talk to Selim.)

“Maes!” Gracia bursts into the room, tears in her eyes, Elicia and Selim each holding one of her hands. “Maes! Oh—you’re awake!”

“Papa!” Elicia cries out, immediately letting go of her mother’s hand to clamber onto his bed. “Papa! I missed you, Papa!”

He catches her in his arms and manages to hold in a pained grunt when she accidentally knees his bandaged torso. “I missed you too, Elicia! It must have been hard on you—but look, I’m back, and I’m so happy to see all of you!”

“I’m so happy too Papa!” Selim chirps, walking over to give him a warm hug, his arms thrown firmly around his neck.

(That can’t be fake, can it?

That affection—all those happy and cheerful moments with him, the love of horror stories he shares with Gracia, his obvious care and concern over Elicia—

Even if some of it is fake, Hughes can’t believe it all is.

Especially when Pride is the one who kept insisting that he be kept alive, even if it would ruin this ‘Father’s’ plans.

Sure, he kept justifying himself, saying that Roy would go on the war-path if Hughes died, but while that is probably true, Hughes knows that the best way to keep something secret is to simply kill off anyone who knows too much about it.

The easiest and most efficient way to keep their plan on track would be to silence him now and forever.

And yet—he is alive and well.

Well—mostly well—he was definitely going to have to go through physical therapy, but still.

What was their next move?

Who was in charge?

And how did Selim—Pride—factor into all of this?)

“Maes?” Gracia’s voice calls him back to himself, her hand trembling slightly as she strokes his hair. “Are you alright?”

“I’m good,” Hughes confirms, patting Selim on the back and stroking Elicia’s hair before managing a grin for Gracia. “Gracia, baby—did I worry you?”

Gracia lets out a laugh that turns into a choked sob midway through. “You worried me  _ so much _ —you  _ terrible _ man—”

“I’m sorry,” Hughes says, leaning forward and kissing the corner of her mouth while breathing in the scent of her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

Gracia lets out a shuddering breath and reaches out to smooth her hands over his shoulders before nodding. “You came back, that’s what matters. And—what happened? Do you remember who attacked you? It wasn’t Second Lieutenant Ross, was it?”

“Yeah, Papa, what do you remember?” Selim asks, loosening his grasp and looking up at him with wide innocent eyes.

“Ross? Oh—no—and… I remember enough that I need to talk to Roy,” Hughes says carefully, glancing around. “Can someone call him here?”

“I did try, but they say he’s off on some operation.” Gracia frowned. “Something about a lab?”

(Oh, that’s probably not good.

Still—Roy can handle himself at the best of times, and probably even more so with the knowledge that someone attacked Hughes.

But what was this about Ross?

Was it because that monster had shifted into her form at one point?

They couldn’t be trying to pin this on her, were they?

Shit— _ Roy  _ wouldn’t think she had anything to do with it, would he?

No—Roy’s smarter than that—and he also has Riza there for the times he’s not, so Ross should be fine.

Well, as fine as she could be with a government conspiracy determined to proceed.

Which of course brings back the question—how is he still alive?)

Hughes glances over at Selim, who smiles innocently at him. “I’m sure Uncle Roy will be here as soon as he can! He’s probably just a little—held up right now.”

(And that doesn’t sound ominous at all.

….he needs to talk with Selim, as much as it pains him to do so.)

“Gracia—Elicia—can I talk with just Selim for a moment?” he asks gently, patting Gracia’s hand.

Gracia looks puzzled, glancing over at Selim and then back at him. “…of course you can but—why?”

“I feel like Papa has some worries that he wants to put to rest,” Selim pipes up, his voice high and clear. “It’s no big deal—don’t worry Mama. I’m sure he just wants to know what’s happened while he was out.”

“I’m not going,” Elicia declares, holding onto Hughes tighter. “I don’t want to go! I want to stay with Papa!”

“Shh, shh, Elicia,” Hughes says, smoothing down her hair. “I’ll be right here, promise! There’s just a few things that I need to talk to your brother about—”

“Why can’t I stay?” Elicia demands, looking up at him with teary eyes. “You just came back!”

Hughes feels his resolve slipping (his poor baby girl—she’s probably been through so much this month as well…) when Selim clears his throat and declares, “Papa probably wants to plan some kind of surprise with me!”

“A surprise?” Elicia asks, eyes wide, and turns her head to look at Selim.

Selim nods solemnly. “Obviously we have to celebrate him waking up—but the theme and the gifts and the cake will be a surprise for everyone!”

“Cake?” Elicia echoes, her blue eyes growing even wider. “A big cake?”

“The biggest—three—no,  _ four  _ layers,” Selim says, motioning with his hands to show how big it will be. “Chocolate and strawberry  _ and  _ lemon  _ and  _ raspberry!”

“Ooooooh,” Elicia says, her arms loosening from Hughes’ neck as she stares at Selim. “But why can’t you guys talk about it here?”

“Because the gifts are a secret, Elicia!” Selim says cheerfully, hefting her up, stumbling, and then pushing her towards Gracia. “Don’t you want a nice surprise?”

“…yes,” Elicia admits, hugging Gracia tightly. “But you won’t take too long—right?”

“Definitely won’t, now go! Secret planning!” Selim insists, making shooing gestures.

Gracia glances at Hughes, and Hughes gives her a nod. She sighs, rubs Selim head, then leans forward to give Hughes another kiss on the cheek. “…alright. But like Elicia said—don’t take too long. You need to rest, Maes! Doctor’s orders!”

“I’ve been doing nothing but resting this past month!” Hughes reassures, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “It’ll be alright, I promise.”

(…somehow, he’ll make it right.)

Gracia and Elicia leave the room, and Selim turns to him with a cheerful smile. “What did you want to talk about Papa? There isn’t really going to be a surprise party, is there?”

“…you came up with that rather smoothly,” Hughes notes.

“I’ve gotten a lot of practice watching you,” Selim says with a grin, sitting at the foot of his bed. “Oooh, or is it some kind of secret investigation? I’d be really good at that! Or is it—”

“Selim,” Hughes interrupts, leaning forward. “You—you were there, weren’t you? And at Nina’s house—that must have been you as well.”

Selim raises his eyebrows, his expression confused. “There? Where’s there? And Nina’s house? Is that tying back to all of Uncle Roy’s questions? I told you that it’s all a blur—”

“‘The shadows here have eyes,’” Hughes repeats slowly. “And you—you always loved shadow puppets so much, and Elicia always said you were so good at them—and in the phonebooth, that was  _ your  _ voice, and you protecting me—”

“Papa, I don’t understand, you’re scaring me,” Selim interjects, his lower lip trembling. “I don’t really get why you think you heard me there—I—I practice really hard for my shadow puppets—is that bad? I can stop…”

(Oh, this is breaking his heart.

His son looks as though he’s about to  _ cry _ —did he get this all wrong?

He had been losing a lot of blood at the time, it could have been some kind of hallucination…)

“I don’t see why you believe the words of some serial killer apply to  _ me _ ,” Selim sobs, his little hands rubbing at his eyes.

Hughes freezes. “…I never said that Scar said those words,” he says slowly. “And—the only people there at that time other than me and Scar were the Elric brothers and—”

(And the demon Scar had been talking about, if it had just been hiding in the shadows the whole time.)

The sobs abruptly stop, and when Selim lowers his hands, his face is eerily calm.

“…drat,” he says thoughtfully, as the shadows around him seem to lengthen. “I forgot about that. There’s a lot I’ve had to keep track of over these past few days so—an amateur mistake, but oh well.”

“What—Selim—what  _ are  _ you?” Hughes croaks out as the shadows seem to take on a life of their own and stretch out around them—much like in the phonebooth.

“I’m a homunculus,” Selim answers simply, as the shadows around him grow and  _ eyes  _ begin to open up from them. “Father’s first-born, oldest and wisest of all my siblings.”

“Pride,” Hughes breathes.

(That—

How—

Then all this time—

Was everything a lie?

Had he been sent here just to—just to what,  _ spy  _ on him?

But—

But if that was the case—

Why save his life?)

“Smart,” Selim nods, propping his chin on his hands. “But we always knew you were smart. That’s why Father put me with you—keep an eye on both you and Mustang.”

( _ Roy _ —that’s who they were after.

But again in that case—

Why not just kill Roy as well?

And back in the Fifth Laboratory—didn’t Ed say that those monsters—these homunculi he guesses he should call them—didn’t he say that they could have easily killed him, but had also ended up keeping him alive?

So what is it—are they keeping alchemists alive for some reason?

…is there something they need them for?

But again, that doesn’t explain why Pride—Selim—had kept  _ him  _ alive.

He’s not an alchemist, and he definitely knows too much now.

Why is Pride—Selim—Pride explaining all this?

And where is Roy right now?)

“…is Roy really stuck in a lab?” Hughes asks directly.

Selim’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh—just awake and already that suspicious, huh? An intelligence officer’s instincts I guess… Mustang will be fine, we can’t let precious sacrifices go to waste. It’ll probably just take them some time to dig through everything I sealed them in.”

(Sealed, not burned down.

So there probably is something valuable in that lab, or else they would have just set fire to it like they did the Archives and the other lab.

He’ll have to let Roy know—if he manages to get out of this in one piece.

But Pride—Selim doesn’t want to hurt him does he?)

“…are you planning on imprisoning me somewhere after all this?” Hughes asks, gesturing around at the shadows gathered menacingly overhead. “Or are you going to kill me?”

“I didn’t work this hard to keep you alive to kill you right now!” Selim says indignantly, suddenly sounding like himself for the first time since the shadows had appeared. “Mustang would be furious and go on a rampage! You’re—you’re going to get shipped off to Xing for a bit. You and Gracia and Elicia.”

(…so even though Selim is probably much older than he physically appears, given how long this conspiracy must have been going on, it seems that perhaps at his heart—

Selim is still a child, in some respects.

Does he even know why he kept Hughes alive?)

“And if I refuse?” Hughes asks, his fists clenched in his sheets.

Selim shakes his head woefully. “I would advise against that. Father’s Promised Day is coming soon. You won’t want to be here when it happens—and neither will Gracia or Elicia.”

(Gracia and Elicia for sure need to get out of Amestris, even if Gracia fights him tooth and nail on her going with Elicia—he can’t risk any of them.

And apparently, neither can Pride.

Not everything here is a lie—just a  _ whole fucking lot. _ )

“You know I won’t go, Selim,” he says gently, looking at him.

Selim frowns, the shadows around him still moving around. “Perhaps. But how are you going to stop me from just knocking you out and then sending you there?”

“How are you going to explain that to Gracia?” Hughes immediately asks. “How are you going to explain that to  _ Elicia? _ ”

That makes Selim stand shock-still, even his shadows frozen in place. “She’d—none of them have to know—”

“It’s a bit hard for them not to know if we’re somehow all in Xing without you,” Hughes points out. “Also— _ I  _ know.”

Selim shifts in place, his shadows starting to stir around his feet as he begins to chew his lip. “…I always knew all of you would have to find out… that doesn’t really matter to me…”

“If it doesn’t, then why are you hesitating?” Hughes presses his advantage. “What are you waiting for, Pride?”

Selim looks up at him, his face scrunched up (there’s part anger, but there’s also part distress, and all Hughes wants to do is give him a hug—but right now, he has to keep going). “I—I know what you’re trying to do—trying to imply—and it doesn’t work. I don’t actually  _ care  _ about any of you—you’ve all been very nice for humans, that’s true—Elicia is probably at the pinnacle of them—and it would be—rude for me to just let you all be sacrificed—”

“Before, you said you didn’t want to kill me because Roy would go on a rampage,” Hughes interrupts steadily. “And while that is probably true—you must know the safer option would have been to silence me completely. And now you’re saying that you want to spare all of us out of politeness? Which is it, Pride?”

A shadowy tendril lashes out and grips him by the collar, shoving him against the metal headboard of his bed and causing it to rattle as Pride steps closer. “Obviously it’s both. Don’t act like you know me, Hughes. You just knew the character I was playing—that’s all. I am so much older and unfathomable than you can even  _ dream  _ of.”

Hughes struggles in his grasp (damn—no wonder Selim had never really bothered with P.E. if he had always had this tucked away somewhere) and gasps out, “If that really was the case—if everything was a lie, and I don’t know you at all—then kill me here and now, because otherwise Pride, I  _ am  _ going to stop you.”

Selim throws his head back and laughs. “How are you going to do that?” he asks, tilting his head. “Do you really think you can go against me? Or prevent any of Father’s plans?”

“Haven’t I already?” Hughes argues (he already really,  _ really  _ hates this Father guy). “Wasn’t killing me part of his plan?”

Selim pauses, his hold loosening slightly. “That’s not—that was just—Father didn’t have all the details of what was happening here—of the consequences—so it was up to me to take action—”

“And afterwards? When you told him all the details and consequences, did he agree with your decision?”

Selim is still, but the shadows around him start to flicker strangely. “…Father is always right. He just—I—it doesn’t matter, Father is someone who will become a God, so attempting to prevent his plans from coming into fruition is just pointless.”

“ _ That’s  _ what the circle is for?” Hughes demands. “Godhood?”

(Whenever he meets this Father, he’s going to stab him in the neck. What a monumental selfish dickwad.

And  _ that  _ is the person who has been guiding Selim this entire time?

No wonder he’s like this—and no wonder Selim wants to keep them all alive.

It had probably been the first time he had ever been shown a little affection, let alone love.

He just needs to sow enough doubt in his mind to maybe break this Father’s hold—)

“What a cliché motive,” Hughes says shaking his head ruefully. “All for that… So many lives, just to attempt to elevate one person? And what happens to you and the rest of the homunculi—your siblings—after that?”

Selim is quiet for a moment, before slowly saying, “We will still be his children of course—elevated servants perhaps—”

“Is that all he sees you all as? Servants?”

Selim’s head jerks up, and he scowls furiously. “We are his  _ children _ —we are his  _ creations,  _ and he is fit to order us to do  _ anything— _ ”

“Is he?” Hughes asks quietly. “If I ordered Elicia to do even half of what he has made you do, wouldn’t you have killed me already?”

Selim just stands there, staring at him in shock. This is when there is a knock on the door and Gracia cracks it open.

“Maes, Roy just got out and got my message, so he’s coming over, so I thought you should—”

Gracia’s voice dies as she takes in the scene, her eyes growing wide as they travel from the shadows around Hughes’ neck over to Selim. Then she immediately hurtles into the room, grabbing at Selim.

“Selim!  _ Get away from that _ ! It’s—”

Selim dodges her grasp, the shadows drawing away from Hughes and swaying at his feet as the door creaks, and he looks over to see Elicia peering at them all, blinking in confusion.

“Selim? Are you going to be doing a big shadow play for the surprise?” she asks hopefully.

Selim is frozen in place for a moment, looking from Elicia’s cheerful expression over to Gracia’s pale face, then back to Hughes, before his eyes land at the window where a car pulls up and Roy gets out. The shadows at Selim’s feet begin to swirl, and suddenly, he's  _ gone. _

“ _ Selim! _ ” Gracia cries out, reaching out frantically across the ground where he disappeared, her hands scrabbling at the cold hard tiles. “ _ Selim! Maes—Selim—Selim he—something took him—our son, how do we get our son back?” _

Maes manages to hobble up from his bed to catch his wife, clutching her firmly to him as his hands tremble along with hers. “He’s—Gracia—Selim’s not—he’s our son but—”

The door slams open once again, Roy marching in and quickly scooping up a confused Elicia before glancing around. “I saw weird shadows—same as down in that lab—where’s Selim?”

“He—he  _ disappeared with those shadows! _ ” Gracia cries out, clutching at Hughes while staring at Roy. “Roy—please—spread out your people, find our  _ son—” _

“You do need to find him,” Hughes agrees, his hands tightening around Gracia’s shoulders. “But not—not because he’s been kidnapped—Gracia—he’s—those shadows are part of him.”

Gracia stares at him. “ _ What? _ ”

“I know it’s—hard to believe—impossible to believe, but—Gracia, he’s—he’s not a normal boy. He has abilities and—he is affiliated with those homunculi Ed was talking about.”

Gracia shakes her head, pulling away from his grasp. “That’s not possible—he just turned  _ eleven _ —he’s not—he doesn’t have some kind of crazy shadow powers—”

“But Selim does!” Elicia pipes up, looking worriedly between her parents. “Selim has always been really good at controlling shadows—that’s how he tells me stories and makes plays!”

“…Elicia, you—you knew he could do this?” Hughes asks slowly.

(Pride had no reason to use his shadow skills to tell stories to a small child—but Selim did, since Selim had always seemed to absolutely adore Elicia.

And it seems that that part was definitely not an act.)

“Yes, but Selim said it was a secret… oh,” Elicia’s lip wobbles as she stares at them. “But I just told you… will Selim be mad at me?”

“No, Selim won’t be,” Gracia hurries to reassure Elicia, taking her from Roy’s arms and holding her tight. “He won’t—once he comes back. Once—none of this makes sense, even if Selim  _ does  _ have shadow powers, why do you think that he’s affiliated with—”

Hughes leans over to cover Elicia’s ears before saying heavily, “Because I saw him. Right before I was shot—he was trying to convince the homunculus that was trying to kill me that killing me wasn’t part of the plan, and that homunculus called him Pride.”

Gracia stares at him in horror while Roy covers his mouth with his hand as the rest of his team also comes filing in.

“That’s—how—no—but Selim, he—he’s not—he  _ loves  _ Elicia, you know that, and—and he tried to save you—but—what—was he a spy or—” Gracia slumps down, into a chair, her face pale and hands trembling as she hugs Elicia close to her.

Hughes immediately crouches down, wincing a bit, and takes her hands in his. “I know—I know it’s a lot to take in—but he’s—he’s still our son, Gracia—the  _ easiest  _ thing would have been to kill me, but he’s worked this hard to keep me alive—”

“Not to break in on the giant revelation that Selim is a homunculus—we will  _ definitely  _ go find him after this, please don’t worry Gracia—but why did they want to kill you anyway?” Roy breaks in, nodding to Riza to guard the door and for Havoc to sweep Elicia away and watch over her. “What was so important that they had to silence you?”

(Trust Roy to get to the heart of the matter.

They have to stop this ‘Promised Day’ or whatever, or none of them will be alive to see out the rest of anything—

And who knows what will happen to Selim left alone with this terrible Father.

He’d already broken him this much. Wouldn’t what little remained of his humanity, the spark of human childishness that Hughes is absolutely  _ certain  _ is there, wouldn’t it be extinguished under this man who wanted to be a God?)

Hughes motions for Roy to come closer and whispers the details into his ear. Roy blanches the more he speaks, gripping the side of the bed hard, his nails going white.

“…then the Fuhrer has to be part of this as well,” Roy finally says, biting at his thumbnail. “And—and who knows who else. That’s why you tried to call me from a phone-booth. And that’s why they worked so hard to pin everything on Second Lieutenant Ross.”

Hughes nods. “To set up the entire thing—that would take most of the High Council.”

“And you’re saying—the last mark is in Briggs. ” Roy’s brow furrows further. “….could that be where Selim—Pride ran off to?”

(He hadn’t even thought that far yet.

It—makes a certain amount of sense.

Pride probably couldn’t return to this Father—his cover had definitely been blown, and this Father person didn’t sound like the kind of guy who would take news of failure kindly.

He wasn’t really certain how tasks were divided among these homunculi, but at least one of them would  _ have  _ to go off to Briggs to kick off enough violence to set up the last point on the circle.

Although good luck with that. They were sure to run into Major General Armstrong in that case, and Hughes has never met a more terrifying person.

But he’d even stand up to her to confront his son again.)

“I’ll go,” Hughes says immediately, giving Gracia another hug and Elicia a pat on the head before standing up. “I’ll go up there and—”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mustang snaps, shoving him down by pressing a hand down on his shoulder. “You just woke up, there’s a government conspiracy out there that wants to kill you, and you just found out your son is actually some kind of shadow monster immortal spy—”

“He’s still my son, Roy,” Hughes says steadily, looking him in the eye. “He’s still Selim.”

“How do you know that?” Roy demands, looking him in the eye. “He’s been lying this entire time—he was specifically put with you to  _ spy _ on all of us—”

“He went against direct orders from this ‘Father’ he keeps mentioning to keep me alive,” Hughes snaps. “He kept talking about getting me, Gracia, and Elicia to Xing before this Promised Day—even if he doesn’t admit it to himself, he’s grown attached.”

“Attached is one thing, and I’m glad he kept you alive, but what are we supposed to do from here?” Roy asks, his eyes narrowing. “If we see him at Briggs—”

“We stop him from completing the blood seal, and then I bring him home,” Hughes says firmly.

“And if he doesn’t want to come home with you?” Roy then turns to Gracia, still sitting quietly in the chair, staring at her hands. “Gracia—what do you think about all this?”

Gracia looks up at him, then bites her lip before turning to look at Hughes. “…I’m still processing all this and—and I will admit that I am very—he betrayed us before he even really knew us, but—all I can say is that I cannot believe that Selim doesn’t adore Elicia, and he has been our beloved son ever since we adopted him. His past—is  _ extremely  _ different from what either of us expected—but that doesn’t change the years and care we have all had, and—as Maes said, if he didn’t care for us in some way, why is Maes still alive?”

“And do you remember how he called you when Scar attacked me and the Elrics?” Hughes added. “He must have been there somehow with his shadow powers—based on what happened in the telephone booth, maybe he can stretch out his shadow form very far and listen in and talk there—Scar must have seen him, he said something about ‘shadows with eyes’. That’s how he knew about all of it to call you.”

“…be that as it may,” Roy says, pulling up a chair, sitting on it backwards, and folding his hands in front of him to prop his chin on. “Say that he does hold some kind of affection for you guys—sure, I can buy that, maybe. But when push comes to shove, what are you willing to do to stop him? And will he choose you over this Father he mentioned?”

(Hughes doesn’t know the answer to any of these questions.

All he knows is, he has to talk to Selim again—

He can’t let those be his last words to him.)

“If we don’t try, how will we ever know?” Hughes asks instead, reaching out and gripping Gracia’s hand tight. “Maybe he wants to change—and he just needs a push to realize that. Either ways, we have to talk to him.”

Roy lets out a long breath before glancing over at Riza. “Lieutenant, start making preparations for an expedition North.”

Riza salutes and reminds him, “You’ll need to call Major General Armstrong as well.”

“I can imagine the look on her face when she hears we’re coming,” Roy muses, a smirk appearing on his face. “She’s going to  _ hate it. _ ”

“…you’re also coming?” Hughes asks, mentally tallying how much he’s going to have to grovel after he gets to Briggs (Roy, unlike the rest of the sane world, seems to take great pleasure in antagonizing Major General Armstrong for some reason. It’s probably a leadership thing that he’s just going to steer clear of).

“Well, you can’t go up there on your own—besides the fact that there’s a bunch of nigh-immortal homunculi after your ass, you also just woke up from a coma and still have a wound on your stomach,” Roy points out.

“And you can actually leave Central right now?” Hughes asks skeptically. “Weren’t you just investigating some lab or something? Which by the way, that place is definitely important.”

“Yes, I gathered when your son and Havoc’s now ex-girlfriend collapsed the ceiling over us and sealed off the main door before disappearing,” Roy replies coolly. “But that’s true, if I go, it’ll definitely look suspicious. Ah, Havoc, you go accompany Maes. Nothing like a trip up North for you to nurse your wounded heart—but don’t hit on Major General Armstrong unless you want to die.”

Havoc, having returned to the room, pales and says, “Uh—yes sir? But wait—is she also related to Major Armstrong—”

“She’s his older sister,” Hughes explains. “And she’s the Ice Queen of Briggs, and even all of them are terrified of her normally—much less after your boss here is probably going to antagonize her before throwing us at her.”

“Needs must, and besides, if I didn’t get a few jabs in, you know she’d steamroll right over me,” Roy comments before his expression goes serious again. “We have to go up to Briggs to stop the blood seal, that much is true—but are you sure you want to go, Maes? I can send someone else up there—”

“I don’t think Selim will listen to anyone other than Maes,” Gracia says quietly, also gripping Hughes’ hand tight. “He’s—bring him back. Stop him from doing whatever terrible thing he is doing, tell him we love him, and bring him back.”

“I will,” Hughes promises her, kissing her hand. “In the meantime—you and Elicia need to go to Xing.”

“What?” Gracia jerks her hand out of his grasp. “No—you  _ just  _ woke up again, and Selim is missing—”

“And Amestris is about to turn into some kind of giant human transmutation circle, and I  _ cannot  _ have you and Elicia here at risk for that—much less a target for any of these other homunculi,” Hughes argues. “Get to Xing—it must be safe since Selim wanted so badly to force us all there—”

“ _ Xing _ ? That is too far away—it’d take at least a month to even cross the desert—”

“But it’s one of the few countries we’re not having some sort of border dispute with,” Hughes says, smiling weakly at her. “You and Elicia would be safe there.”

“…Elicia has to be safe, but—I can’t just  _ leave  _ you here to deal with all this—”

“You’re not leaving me, you’re keeping our daughter safe,” Hughes says, reaching out to touch her shoulder. “You’re keeping her safe, so that when I bring our son back, she’ll be there to greet him with a big smile.”

Gracia twists her hands together, biting her lip, obviously torn. “…I hate this,” she whispers.

“I know,” he answers, hugging her tightly to him. “I hate it too—I want you guys here with me too, but that’s—that’s both selfish and dangerous, and Elicia deserves better than that.”

Gracia hugs him back tightly and wipes at her eyes with her hands. “…that’s true. I—I will go with Elicia, but Maes—you better stay alive, and you better bring our son back, alright?”

“Yes,” Hughes agreed, rubbing away the tears on her cheeks with his fingers as he presses his forehead against hers. “I swear.”

(He’ll bring him back or else—

Well, he’ll obviously still try his best to stop this monstrous plan, but if he somehow can’t bring Selim back—

He doesn’t know how he’ll be able to face Gracia or Elicia.

He doesn’t know how he’ll be able to face himself after that.

—He can’t think about it, all he can focus on right now is getting to Briggs, stopping Selim from cutting a bloody swathe through it, and then asking him to come back with him.

That’s all he can do.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, we are way off of the canon path now. Still, what did you guys think? How do you think Briggs will go? Did you like the confrontation? Did you like Hughes, Elicia, Gracia, and Mustang's reactions? (I kind of wanted to keep Gracia in Amestris, but I couldn't quite make it align with the two of them wanting desperately to keep Elicia safe, but we'll see what happens later!) Please leave comments/kudos!
> 
> You may have noticed the chapter count ticked up by one. Museflight has convinced me to add a little extra, so you guys will see later what it is!


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